7 Rather Bizarre Animals You’ve Never Seen
Diversity of nature doesn’t cease to amaze. With every new year that passes, numerous new species are discovered from the rainforests to the arid deserts. Sad part is that even more species goes extinct every year. Anyway, with all the media nowadays (internet and TV mostly) there are still some species whose existence is unknown to most of the mankind. Here, we bring you some of the most interesting examples.
Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is an elusive herbivore found mainly in Central Africa. Although it has deer-like resemblance, it’s actually one of the rare survivors of the giraffe. It’s on a bring of extinction because it’s hunted mercilessly for it’s fur.
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Goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is one of those species that’s found mostly at higher depths. There were examples of 4 meter long goblin sharks being caught at depths of over 1200 meters near the coast of Japan. Beside their looks, nothing really separates them from more commonly seen sharks.
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Mutillidae, also known as panda ants actually have nothing to do with ants. They are actually a species of wasps.Their females don’t have wings and resemble big ants more than wasps. One more interesting thing: when a pair of these wasps “get together” they stay together for the rest of their lives.
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This specie of antelope, Litocranius walleri, also known as Gerenuk is found mostly in Eastern Africa. Their long necks and ability to stand only on their back legs while grazing provide them with more food and thus more chance of survival than their less agile counterparts roaming the wilds.
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Glaucus atlanticus, or as he’s often called blue slug, is one almost alien looking fellow. Also, although he looks really harmless while he floats where the tide takes him (thanks to the chamber filled with gas), he has few tricks up his sleeve, too . First of all, he uses natural camouflage technique which allows him to be unseen both by predators from the air and from the depth of the sea. It’s called countershading and it allows him to meld with the color of the sea/sky (depends are you looking from the air or from the water). There is also an interesting fact that he can digest some water organisms that would kill human beings with ease.
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Patagonian cavy (Dolichotis patagonum) is a rather large rodent from Argentina. Strange by appearance, it also has some strange habits for a rodent. For instance, it likes to bask in the sun whole day long. It’s also an adept runner.
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People who spent at least some time surfing the web in search of interesting animals know for sure that Australia is home to a big chunk of weirdest creatures mankind has ever seen. Such is the case with Moloch horridus, a bizarre spiky lizard also known as thorny devil. Also, unlike not so many creatures in Australia, this adorable little monster is completely harmless to humans.
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