Some animals shoot blood out of their eyeballs to defend themselves, and some just look so unbelievable ugly they couldn’t not be on a list of strange animals, so welcome to 10 strange animals that will shock you! It’s estimated there are 2 million to 50 million species of animal in the world, and although most of them are weird compared to humans, these take the cake.
The Superb Bird Of Paradise
Males fiercely compete for female partners among this species of bird. This has led to one of the most ridiculous mating rituals in the animal kingdom. The male will first prepare a dance floor by cleaning a certain area of leaves and other objects. He will then summon a female with a mating call. Once the female arrives he will spread his feathers, and breast shield and begin vigorous dance moves to impress the female. This almost always fails, and females will generally reject 15-20 males before picking a partner. The dance is normally just the male jumping up and down in circles around the female.
Praying Mantis
The Praying Mantis is one of those strange animals that have always managed to fascinate us. The Greeks named it Mantis, which means prophet or seer, and in Asia an entire martial art style was developed because of it. Not only does it look strange, but it has one of the most disturbing sex lives imaginable. During mating the female will rip off the head of the male and eat it, and then move on to eat his corpse for further nourishment. The Mantis has large bent legs which make it look as if it’s praying, which is how it gets it’s name.
Aye-aye
The Aye is famous for being one of the ugliest and strangest animals in the world. It’s hard to believe the weird looking primate is actually related to us. It lives on the island of Madagascar, and you won’t find it anywhere else. You can find them in Rainforest trees, but you’ll have to go at night if you want to see the nocturnal creatures moving about. They rarely come down to ground. They for about 20 years on average. Aye-ayes are omnivores, and are the only primates which use echolocation to find their prey. It has a very large middle finger, which it uses to scoop up food, and even larvae.
The Mexican Walking Fish
The Mexican Walking Fish is an endangered species of salamander, and contrary to what the name implies, isn’t actually a fish. It’s origins can be traced back to multiple lakes including Lake Xochimilco. Although they are amphibians they stay aquatic throughout their lives, never giving up their gills. The Walking Fish is probably one of the weirdest looking animals in the world, and is commonly likened to a cartoon character. The walking fish, also known as the Axolotls, has the amazing ability to grow back it’s limbs. Because of this it has been used by many scientists for experimentation. The strange animals were commonly eaten by the Atecs.
Proboscis Monkey
The giant noses these monkeys own can both be used to attract female monkeys and amplify the monkeys voices, by creating an echo-chamber. Since their voices can travel further this allows them to impress females, and intimidate rival males. They mainly stay near swamps, and rivers but every now and then they will leave these areas to search for food. Their large noses can grow up to and beyond four inches. They like to live in groups, generally with one male, multiple female partners, and their children. There are a range of different groups formed by the monkeys, which sometimes reach as many as 60 members. Their relatively peaceful creatures, although sometimes minor violence breaks out between them.
The Sunda Flying Lemur
The Sunda Flying Lemur, is a species of Colugo found throughout Southeast Asia. It’s known as the flying lemur because of it’s ability to glide from tree to tree, which creates the illusion of flight. It lives mainly in trees, feeding on leaves and soft plants. It can travel quite far while gliding, sometimes reaching 100m. Gliding is useful for them as it allows them to travel really far to find food, without going down to ground. It’s important they stay away from the ground as they have limited mobility their, and will have trouble escaping predators. They get their food from trees, sometimes eating from several trees in a single night.
Zebra duiker
The Zebra duiker is a small antelope that inhabits the African continent. The duiker are nocturnal creatures, but have displayed diurnal habits while in activity. They primarily fed on fruit, foliage, and seeds, and occasionally they will eat rodents. They have 12 – 16 stripes going across their back. Duikers have one child at a time, and hide their newborn child in dense vegetation. They will visit it around four times a day. Their mainly found in Liberia.
The Yeti Crab
The Yeti Crab, also called Kiwa hirsuta, is a species of crab with long white setae covering it’s legs and claws. This setae closely resembles fur, which is why it was called the Yeti Crab. It was discovered in 2005 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. They discovered south of Easter Island, along the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. The crab is most likely blind, we can tell this because of it’s reduced eyes, and lack of pigment. It feeds on hydrothermal vents. It uses the hair on it’s body to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water. Kiwas Hirsuta was the first found of the Yeti Crab family, since it’s discovery two other members have been found.
Horned Lizard
The Horny frog, also known as the Horned Lizard is reptile which utilises a very unusual method to scare off predators. The Lizard has the amazing ability to squirt blood out of it’s eye at an oncoming predator in order to scare it off. The blood that comes out of it’s eye has a natural repellent that will scare away some animals. The spines on it’s back are made from modified scales which allow it to prevent water loss. There are fifteen species of Horned Lizards and over half of them can be found in the US. Because of their brown colour, they easily blend into desert environments which helps to keep them hidden from predators.
The Spade-Toothed Whale
This is one of the rarest whales in the world, and effectively eluded capture for quite some time. So little is known about the animal that it can’t even be determined whether it’s endangered or not. The whale has incredibly large nine inch teeth. There are only two known complete specimens, one is a female which measures 17.4 ft long, and the other is male which measures 11.5 ft long. We’ve known about the creature since the 1800’s but the first complete specimen was only found in 2005. It was first named when a part of a jaw was found on Pitt Island, New Zealand in 1872.