There many creatures, great and small that are weird and peculiar. In this post, we’ll be going over some of the weirdest animals on earth, and we’ll also be showing you what they look like! Let’s get started!
Ribbon Worm
A man came across this green jelly-like ribbon worm, or Nemertea while fishing in the port of Penghu in Taiwan. It has a proboscis, or a feeding tube – a pink ribbon – which it ejects when hunting. The proboscis secretes a mucus-like material that paralyses its prey. Nemertea typically lives underwater in tropical regions, but it is also known to inhabit cold, damp terrestrial areas. They ‘re also, without a doubt, gross.
Where to find them?
Taiwan (and elsewhere): If you wish, ribbon works can typically be seen underwater in tropical regions, but are often known to be in cold, damp terrestrial areas.
Western Tarsier
You’ve heard of eyes larger than your stomach-well, now you’ve seen an animal with eyes as big as its brain. The Gollum-like western tarsier may have the best night vision goggles in existence, by using its claw-like digits and strong back legs to jump between the trees in pursuit of insects and tiny invertebrates and pick them out of the nooks and crannies in the forest.
Where to find them?
The tarsier is indigenous to Borneo and part of Sumatra. It can be seen in the Philippines as well.
Sloane’s Viperfish
This deep-sea fish has fangs so huge that they protrude from its mouth, sitting like spears at the side of its beaded eyes. Found between 1,000 and 2,000 metres below the surface of the sea, the viperfish uses bioluminescence to produce a small lamp that dangles from its back to lure its prey which consists of crustaceans and small fish.
Where to find them?
While viperfish has been known to be captured in deep-sea trawler nets, it is doubtful that you will ever see a live specimen. However, they can be seen at Iceland’s annual Sea Festival (‘Sjomannadagur’) in the port of Reykjavik, where fishermen display a variety of strange deep-sea species, including sea lampreys, fangtooths and viperfish.
Bald Uakari
South Americans reputedly call this unfortunate bald monkey ‘mono angles,’ or ‘English monkey,’ in memory of the first sunburnt British to visit their homeland. Whether it’s legend or fact, the bald Uakari’s scarlet pate looks like a holidaymaker who fell asleep in the sun. During the rainy season, this endangered species lives high in the treetops of the Amazon River Basin. It often retreats closer to the ground in the dry season to hunt for nuts and seeds.
Where to find them?
The Uakari can be found deep in the forests of Brazil, Peru and Colombia. In his guide to the Amazon rainforest, Chris Moss suggests visiting the floating Uakari Lodge in Brazil’s isolated Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve, where tourists can see bald Uakari among other species such as three-toed sloths and pink river dolphins.
Mata Mata
What you are looking at may look like a pile of rotting leaves, but this is actually a freshwater turtle. The protruding nose serves like a snorkel and uses the mouth as a low-pressure vacuum to suck fish back as they pass. Its carapace can reach up to 45 cm (18 in) and can weigh up to 15 kg (33 lb) when fully grown.
Where to find them?
Mata mata can be found throughout South America, especially in slow-moving waterways and ponds in northern Bolivia, eastern Peru, Ecuador, eastern Colombia, Venezuela, Guiana, and northern and central Brazil.
Fog-Basking Beetle
The Fog-Basking Beetle inhabits the arid Namib desert. The fog-basking beetle catches water droplets on its back legs from the coastal fog while standing on its head on the sand.
Where to find them?
The desert of Namib, West Africa.
Lowland Streaked Tenrec
This spiny mammal has bristles with barbed quills that it uses to shield from predators-normally the mongoose-by erecting them, pointing them forward, and pushing them into the nose or paws of the attacker. In bold yellow and brown markings, the tenrec weighs approximately 200 g and feeds on earthworms and insects.
Where to find them?
Northern and eastern Madagascar, most of which can be found in deep, shallow burrows, in family groups.
Axolotl
The Lazarus of the animal kingdom, this salamander has incredible healing abilities, with the ability to re-grow muscles, portions of its brain and spinal cord. The feathery gills and lidless eyes are understood by the fact that she remains in the larval stage her entire life. It’s often wrongly thought of as a fish, but it’s actually an amphibian.
Where to find them?
Mexican axolotl is critically endangered and can only be found in the wild in Lake Xochimilco, near Mexico City.