Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Indochinese Ground Squirrel Menetes berdmorei

  

  This diurnal squirrel spends most of its time on the ground. It has a gray-brown back, a pale underside, and flank stripes that vary among subspecies.

• Tufted puffin Fratercula cirrhata

  A seabird that grows long, pale-yellow head plumes for the breeding season.

• Highlands Colilargo Oligoryzomys rupestris

  This rodent is recorded in the highland Cerrado of central Brazil. In the original study it was captured only in rocky highland grassland or along the edge of adjacent vegetation.

• Chocolate-backed Kingfisher Halcyon badia

  The Chocolate-backed Kingfisher has a chestnut head, dark brown back, and bright blue rump. It lives in pairs and launches from high perches to catch insects and other prey.

• Riparian Myotis Myotis (Pizonyx) riparius

  The Riparian Myotis is a medium-sized bat with woolly fur. Its dorsal color varies geographically from reddish to blackish, and it ranges widely through the Neotropics.

• Maghreb Lark Galerida macrorhyncha

  This lark was treated as a distinct Maghreb form in a field study. Moroccan observations described a larger, longer bill than in Crested Larks and records from breeding sites with less vegetation cover.

• Korean Field Mouse Apodemus peninsulae

  This mouse has a reddish-brown back and white underside. It lacks the dark stripe seen in a close relative and has relatively long ears and hind feet.

• Dusky Piha Lipaugus fuscocinereus

  This large cotinga inhabits humid Andean montane forest. A Peru account describes a localized record on the eastern slope, and a paper reports a study site in central Colombia.

• Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus avunculus

  Adult Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys are known for their upturned noses and bluish facial skin. The species is recorded in limestone forests of northern Vietnam and eats leaves and unripe fruit.

• White-tailed Kite Elanus leucurus

  A kite with a white body and tail and gray wings. It hovers over grassland while searching for small mammals.

• Uganda Kob Kobus thomasi

  The Uganda Kob is an East African kob with a white underside, eye-rings, and a throat patch. It mainly eats grasses and reeds. Females and young males form groups, move along watercourses, and graze in valley bottoms.

• Bay Wren Cantorchilus nigricapillus

  A small bird of forest and second-growth edges, ranging from Costa Rica to western Ecuador. Regional forms in Panama differ in breast color and the barring beneath.

• Sonoma Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) sonomae

  It occurs in northwestern California, in chaparral, open woodland, and brushy forest edges.

• Opalton Grasswren Amytornis rowleyi

  The Opalton Grasswren is a grasswren studied around Opalton in central western Queensland. Survey sites include open woodland with spinifex ground cover.

• Brandt's Vole Lasiopodomys brandtii

  Brandt's vole lives in Mongolian grasslands and eats plant material both above and below ground. It digs extensive burrow systems and may store food there.

• Socorro Mockingbird Mimus graysoni

  A mockingbird of Socorro Island, Mexico, that searches for fruit and small animals in the island highlands.

• Clear-winged Woolly Bat Kerivoula pellucida

  The clear-winged woolly bat is a small bat with pale fur and nearly translucent wing membranes. It occurs on islands in Southeast Asia, with records of roosting in dead leaves.

• Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola

  The Collared Pratincole flies swiftly and catches insects on the wing in morning and evening flocks. It nests colonially on dry mud near water during breeding.

• Mayor's Mouse Mus (Coelomys) mayori

  Mayor's mouse lives in Sri Lankan forests. The lowland subspecies is described as having flattened, spiny dorsal fur and a white underside.

• Ecuadorian Thrush Turdus maculirostris

  The Ecuadorian Thrush is a forest bird recorded from coastal and foothill western Ecuador to northwestern Peru.

• White-fronted Langur Presbytis frontata

  The white-fronted langur is a Bornean monkey with gray-brown fur and a white bare patch on its forehead. It is active by day, but its detailed ecology is poorly known.

• Genovesa Cactus Finch Geospiza propinqua

  The Genovesa Cactus Finch is restricted to Genovesa Island in the Galápagos. Its long, narrow bill is compressed from side to side, and the bird uses dry lowland scrub where prickly-pear cactus grows.

• Japanese serow Capricornis crispus

  The Japanese serow is a cattle relative from Japan’s mountain forests. Both sexes hold territories and live alone.

• Northern Masked Weaver Ploceus taeniopterus

  The Northern Masked Weaver lives in semi-arid savanna in northeast Africa. Breeding males have a black facial mask on a yellow body, and colonies can form near water.