Star-nosed Mole

The Star-nosed Mole is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States

It lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. As avid swimmers, they forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. They dig shallow surface tunnels for foraging, and oftentimes the tunnels exit underwater. They remain active in winter, having been observed tunneling through the snow and swimming in ice-covered streams.

The Star-nosed Mole is covered in thick blackish brown water-repellent fur with large scaled feet. The long thick tail appears to function as a fat storage reserve for the spring breeding season. Adults are 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) in length, weighing about 2 ounces (55 grams). Their most distinctive feature is a circle of 22 mobile, pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of its snout, used to identify food by touch.

Proboscis Monkey

The Proboscis Monkey also known as Long-nosed Monkey is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey.

Its most distinctive trait is the males large protruding nose. The purpose of its large shnoz is unclear, but its been suggested that its a result of sexual selection. The female Proboscis Monkey prefers big-nosed males.

Males are much larger than females, reaching 28 inches (72 centimeters) in length, with tails up to 29 inches, and weighing up to 53 pounds (24 kilograms). Females are up to 24 inches (60 centimeters) long, weighing up to 26 pounds (12 kilograms).

The Proboscis Monkey has a large belly as a result of its diet. Its digestive system releases a lot of gas, resulting in the monkeys bloated bellies.

Pink Fairy Armadillo

The Pink Fairy Armadillo is the smallest of its species. Its about 3.5 to 4.5 inches (90 to115 Milimeters) long excluding the tail, and pale rose or pink in color. Its found in central Argentina inhabiting dry grasslands and sandy plains with thorn bushes and cacti. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if alarmed.

The Pink Fairy Armadillo burrows small holes near ant colonies in dry dirt where it feeds upon them.

Axolotl

The Axolotl is the most widely known of the Mexican mole salamanders. The species originates from the lake underlying Mexico City. Axolotls are used extensively in scientific research for their ability to regenerate body parts. Theyre commonly kept as pets in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Japan.

A sexually-mature adult axolotl, at age 18 to 24 months, ranges in length from 6 to18 inches (15 to 45 centimeters) although 9 inches is most common.

Aye-aye

The Aye-aye is native to Madagascar, that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger. Being the worlds largest nocturnal primate, Its characterized by its unique method of finding food, tapping on trees to find grubs, then gnawing holes in the wood and inserting its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.

The Aye-aye is currently an endangered species. Theyre the worlds largest nocturnal primate, and dwell predominantly in forest canopies, weighing about 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms).

Alpaca

The Alpaca is a domesticated species of South American camelid derived from the wild alpacas. It resembles a sheep in appearance but larger, with a long erect neck. The Alpaca has varied colors, whereas sheep are generally bred to be white and black.

Alpacas graze in herds on the level heights of the Andes of Ecuador, southern Peru, northern Bolivia, and northern Chile

Smaller than llamas, theyre valued only for their fiber. Alpacas have fleece fibers not woolen used for making knitted and woven items much as sheeps wool is. Alpacas and llamas differ in that llamas have banana shaped ears and long tails and alpacas have straight ears and stubby tails.

Sucker-footed Bat

The Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat, Old World Sucker-footed Bat, or Sucker-footed Bat is a species of bat in the Myzopodidae family, and prevalent to Madagascar. The Sucker-footed Bat is currently threatened by habitat loss.

Pygmy Marmoset

The Pygmy Marmoset is a monkey native to the rainforest canopies of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. Its one of the smallest primates, with its body length ranging from 5.5 to 6.5 inches (14 to16 centimeters) excluding its 6 to 8 inch tail. Males weigh around 5 ounces (140 grams), and females 4.2 ounces (120 grams).

The Pygmy Marmoset bears a tawny coat and a ringed tail that can be as long as its body. Their claws are specially adapted for climbing trees. Although omnivorous, much of their diet comes from tapping trees for sap. Up to two-thirds of their time is spent gouging tree bark to reach the gummy sap. The Pygmy Marmoset has specialized incisors for gouging holes in bark.

Red Panda

The Red Panda is mostly a herbivorous mammal, slightly larger than a domestic cat at 22 inches (55 centimeters) long. The Red Panda has semi-retractile claws and like the Giant Panda, it has a false thumb which is actually an extension of the wrist bone. The Red Panda is native to the Himalayas in Nepal and southern China.

The Red Panda and Giant Panda are only very distantly related by remote common ancestry from the Early Tertiary Period. Fossils of the Red Panda have been unearthed from China in the east to Britain in the west. A handful of fossils considered to be a new genus and species of the Red Panda have recently been discovered in North America.

The Red Panda is classified as an endangered species, with an estimated population of less than 2,500 mature individuals. This number continues to decline due to severely fragmented populations.

Blobfish

The Blobfish inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, its rarely seen by humans.

Blobfish are found at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the Blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; which allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. The relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front it.

Shoebill

The Shoebill is a very large bird related to the storks, deriving its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.

A very large bird, it averages 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, 12 pounds (5.5 kilograms) and 8 feet (2.5 meters) across the wings. The adult is mainly grey, while the juveniles are browner. Its found in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia. The bird was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs.

Shoebills feed in muddy waters, preying on lungfish and similar fish. They nest on the ground, laying 2 eggs.

The population is estimated between 5,000 and 8,000, the majority of which are in Sudan. Bird Life International has classified it as Vulnerable, with its main threats being habitat destruction, disturbance and hunting.

Sloth

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America, mainly in Cecropia trees.

Sloths are omnivores, mainly feasting on insects, small lizards and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves.

As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloths body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take as long as a month or more to complete. They have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 to 34 degrees Celsius or 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit), and even lower temperatures when resting.

Yeti Crab

The Yeti Crab is a crustacean discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean. Approximately 6 inches (15 centimeters) long, is noted for the silky blond setae (resembling fur) covering its thoracic legs, including the claws.

It was discovered March 7 2006, 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Easter Island in the South Pacific. The creature has strongly reduced eyes that lack pigment, and thought to be blind.

The hairy pincers contain filamentous bacteria, which the creature uses to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water emitted by the hydrothermal vents where it lives. Although its thought to be a general carnivore, its diet also consists of green algae and small shrimp.

Although often referred to as the furry lobster, its not a true lobster, but more closely related to hermit crabs.