Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus

  

  A cheetah is a slender, long-legged cat. It catches prey with fast sprints over short distances.

• Japanese fire-bellied newt Cynops pyrrhogaster

  A newt of rice fields and ponds on Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, with a dark back and a red belly patterned in black.

• Fraser's Dolphin Lagenodelphis hosei

  A stocky, short-beaked dolphin that lives in deep offshore waters.

• Ostrich Struthio camelus

  A flightless bird with a long neck and strong legs, living in African grasslands and other open habitats.

• Cuban Crow Corvus nasicus

  The Cuban Crow is a large crow found mainly in Cuba. It uses forests as well as farmland and eats a varied diet.

• Eastern Glass Lizard Ophisaurus ventralis

  This lizard sometimes basks and shelters around alligator nests.

• Harbor porpoise Phocoena phocoena

  A small porpoise of cool Northern Hemisphere waters. It uses bays and estuaries and mainly eats schooling fish.

• European Tree Frog Hyla arborea

  In a survey in western Zealand Flanders, the maximum number of males calling in one night helped estimate the seasonal male population in pools.

• Ebony Glider Petaurus gracilis

  The mahogany glider is a marsupial that glides through woodlands in northern Queensland. Its buff-to-apricot belly and dark stripe from the head toward the rump are distinctive.

• Barn swallow Hirundo rustica

  A bird with a long, deeply forked tail that catches insects in flight. It nests under building eaves and bridges as well as in other sheltered places.

• Greyish Baywing Agelaioides badius

  This icterid lives in central and southern South America, using open woodland, scrub, and grassland with scattered trees.

• Broad-headed Skink Plestiodon laticeps

  This lizard sometimes moves and basks around alligator nests.

• White rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum

  A white rhinoceros grazes with a broad mouth. Despite its name, its skin is gray.

• Rhinella mirandaribeiroi

  A toad found in the South American Cerrado, a landscape that includes open grasslands and savanna.

• Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus

  A large sea lion of the cold North Pacific. It catches fish and other prey at sea and rests ashore.

• House sparrow Passer domesticus

  A small bird of towns and farms. Males and females differ in facial and chest markings; males have a black throat bib.

• Sapayoa Sapayoa aenigma

  A greenish bird of lowland forest from Panama to northwestern Ecuador. It has a broad, subtly hooked bill and lives in the forest understory.

• Bridled House Gecko Hemidactylus frenatus

  A gecko found on Mo’orea.

• Amazon river dolphin Inia geoffrensis

  A long-beaked dolphin that lives in freshwater in the Amazon basin.

• Kai Flying Fox Pteropus keyensis

  This flying fox occurs on Indonesia’s Kai Islands. Its coat is nearly all yellow. It is active at night and roosts in forested areas with little disturbance.

• Cuckoo Roller Leptosomus discolor

  It lives in woodland and forest in Madagascar and the Comoros. Males have iridescent green upperparts, while females are brown above.

• Black-headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

  A gull that gathers around watersides and visits Japan mainly in winter.

• Louisiana Alligator Alligator mississippiensis

  Other animals sometimes visit the area around its nests.

• Southern mountain viscacha Lagidium viscacia

  A member of the chinchilla family that lives among rocks, it has a tuft at the end of its long tail. It is most active in the morning and late afternoon and eats plants such as grasses and shrubs.