Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,025 · Stories: 19,293

• Peale's Free-tailed Bat Nyctinomops aurispinosus

  

  Peale’s Free-tailed Bat is a Central and South American bat whose fur is usually dark brown but varies in shade. Its biology and distribution remain poorly known.

• Western Nesomys Nesomys lambertoni

  

  Lamberton’s forest rat is a rodent recorded in forest on the limestone formations of western Madagascar.

• Cape Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus capensis

  

  Its fur is dark brown above and light gray underneath. It has a horseshoe-shaped nose leaf used in echolocation and large ears.

• Broad-striped Malagasy Mongoose Galidictis fasciata

  

  The broad-striped Malagasy mongoose lives in forests of eastern Madagascar. It is mainly active on the ground at night.

• Hairy-tailed Akodont Necromys lasiurus

  

  The hairy-tailed akodont is a small rodent found in central South America. It lives mainly in grasslands and savannas and eats mostly seeds, though insects can become more important after dry-season fires.

• Bush Karroo Rat Myotomys unisulcatus

  

  The Bush Karoo rat lives in dry shrubland and rocky areas of South Africa. Black hairs mix with its ash-gray back, and it builds mounds of twigs near its nest.

• Ognev's Long-eared Bat Plecotus ognevi

  A long-eared bat recorded widely across northern Asia. Its back is brown and its underside off-white, while much of its daily ecology remains poorly documented.

• Cape Gray Mongoose Galerella pulverulenta

  This slender mongoose lives in southern Africa. It uses bushes and rocky areas and may dig for prey in the soil.

• Hova rice tenrec Oryzorictes hova

  The Hova rice tenrec occurs in Madagascar. In the 1996 Marojejy survey, adults were collected in lowland forest and montane mossy forest.

• Short-eared Dog Atelocynus microtis

  The short-eared dog is a wild canid of the Amazon lowlands, where fish is a common food.

• Bahia Porcupine Coendou insidiosus

  The Bahia porcupine has sharp quills and a long tail that can grasp branches. It is active in trees at night and eats fruits, bark, and other plant matter.

• Andean mountain cat Leopardus jacobitus

  A high-Andes cat with dark body markings and a thick, ringed tail.

• White-footed Sportive Lemur Lepilemur leucopus

  The white-footed sportive lemur has a gray-brown back and pale underside. It rests in tree holes and leaps among branches at night.

• Yellow-winged Bat Lavia frons

  The yellow-winged bat has a blue-gray body and red-and-yellow wings. It uses open savanna and woodland near water, catching insects that pass its perch.

• Sea otter Enhydra lutris

  A member of the weasel family with dense fur, living along North Pacific coasts.

• Sulawesi Flying Fox Acerodon celebensis

  The Sulawesi Flying Fox is a fruit bat found only on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. A small island off eastern Central Sulawesi serves as a daytime roost, and the bats fly to mainland forests at night.

• Kinkajou Potos flavus

  A raccoon relative that grips branches with its long tail and searches for fruit at night.

• Buff-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus gabriellae

  A tree-dwelling gibbon with pale fur on its cheeks.

• Ground Cuscus Phalanger gymnotis

  This cuscus has a dark stripe down its back and a tail suited for gripping branches. It searches for fruit at night and can climb.

• Silky Tuco-tuco Ctenomys sericeus

  This is a subterranean tuco-tuco from Patagonia, with a short, glossy coat mixing olive and brown tones with black. Much of its field natural history remains unknown.

• Australian snubfin dolphin Orcaella heinsohni

  The Australian snubfin dolphin has a rounded head and no beak, and lives in shallow coastal waters of northern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea.

• Dark Four-eyed Opossum Philander melanurus

  This opossum occurs in western Ecuador and nearby parts of northwestern South America. An older, broader classification described coastal populations as dark-coated, and a camera-trap study in one part of Ecuador suggested an association with permanent water.

• Cape Porcupine Hystrix (Hystrix) africaeaustralis

  A porcupine covered in long, stiff quills, native to central and southern Africa.

• King Colobus Colobus polykomos

  The king colobus is a West African forest monkey with a black body and conspicuous white chest, whiskers, and tail.