Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,028 · Stories: 19,472

• Sungrebe Heliornis fulica

  

  The Sungrebe is a small aquatic bird with a long, slender bill and yellow-and-black-banded lobed toes. It hides along quiet, heavily vegetated waterways and may dive when threatened.

• Moluccan Cuscus Phalanger ornatus

  

  The Moluccan cuscus is a marsupial from the Moluccan Islands. Its short, woolly coat can have white spots, and a field study also recorded the species on Obi Island.

• Albert's Lyrebird Menura alberti

  

  Albert's Lyrebird is a long-tailed, chestnut-colored bird of a small area of wet forest in southeastern Australia. A displaying male spreads its tail forward and mixes other birds' calls into its loud calls.

• Desert hedgehog Paraechinus aethiopicus

  

  The desert hedgehog is a hedgehog of dry country, including northwestern Saudi Arabia.

• Chestnut-capped Flycatcher Erythrocercus mccallii

  

  This small bird lives at forest edges and in open woodland in west-central Africa. It has chestnut on the crown, rump, and tail, with a buff breast and white belly. It gleans insects from leaves and sometimes sallies after flying insects.

• Eurasian Forest Dormouse Dryomys nitedula

  

  The Eurasian forest dormouse balances with its fluffy, flattened tail as it moves through branches. It lives in forests with broad-leaved trees and hibernates in winter.

• Blue-billed Duck Oxyura australis

  The Blue-billed Duck is a compact diving duck adapted to life on water. Males stand out with bright blue bills and chestnut plumage.

• Orange-sided Opossum Monodelphis (Monodelphiops) dimidiata

  This small opossum lives in grasslands of northern Argentina, Paraguay, southern Brazil, and Uruguay. Its back is gray, its underside is yellowish, and males are larger than females.

• Long-tailed Meadowlark Leistes loyca

  This meadowlark inhabits open country in southern South America. The male's red breast is conspicuous, and the species nests on the ground.

• Eastern Black-handed Tamarin Saguinus ursula

  This small monkey occurs east of the Tocantins River in Brazil. The EAZA guide notes forest patches toward the Cerrado and Caatinga transition.

• Pearl-breasted Swallow Hirundo dimidiata

  This small swallow lives in scattered parts of southern Africa. It can be overlooked among similar swallows, yet recorded nest sites range from animal burrows to buildings and bridges.

• Four-toed Elephant Shrew Petrodromus tetradactylus

  This sengi has a long, flexible snout and four toes on each hind foot. It follows runways through dense brush.

• Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus punctatus

  A tiny bird of eucalyptus canopies, the Spotted Pardalote has a distinctive pattern of white spots. Adult males also show a red rump and yellow throat. It searches foliage for insects and sugary exudates.

• African Manatee Trichechus senegalensis

  This manatee lives from West African coasts into rivers and brackish waters. It mainly eats aquatic plants and mangrove vegetation.

• Stripe-backed Wren Campylorhynchus nuchalis

  A strongly marked wren recorded from Venezuelan savanna and woodland. At one central Venezuelan study site, group members helped breed and defend nests.

• Smoky Pocket Gopher Cratogeomys fumosus

  The smoky pocket gopher is a burrowing rodent of the southern Mexican Plateau, where volcanic soils occur. Its large foreclaws help it dig underground.

• Magpie Goose Anseranas semipalmata

  The Magpie Goose is a large waterbird with a black head and neck, a white belly, and a diet of aquatic plants in northern Australian wetlands.

• Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix (Hystrix) indica

  A porcupine from the Middle East to South and Central Asia, protected by long quills.

• Palmchat Dulus dominicus

  The Palmchat is a Caribbean island bird with a plain brown back and heavily streaked underparts. It also has a red iris and a strong, slightly decurved bill.

• Spiny Pocket Mouse Chaetodipus spinatus

  The spiny pocket mouse has stiff, spine-like hairs on its rump and sides. It lives in rocky desert scrub, is nocturnal, and stores seeds.

• Bubbling Cisticola Cisticola bulliens

  This small cisticola occurs along the Angolan coast and in parts of the Congo Basin. It is fairly pale and is often easier to detect by its song in grassland and savanna.

• Chinese Pygmy Dormouse Typhlomys cinereus

  The Chinese Pygmy Dormouse is a small rodent recorded in the mountains of southeastern China. It has small eyes and a tuft at the end of its tail, and uses ultrasonic calls to move in darkness.

• Least Seedsnipe Thinocorus rumicivorus

  The Least Seedsnipe is a small ground-dwelling bird of South American grasslands and steppes. It feeds on shoots, leaves, and seeds in pairs or small groups.

• Ganges River Dolphin Platanista gangetica

  A freshwater dolphin of river systems in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. It has very poor sight and uses echoes from ultrasonic sounds to locate fish and other prey.