The Weird Animal Encyclopedia
143 of the strangest creatures alive — each with the real fact, the full story, and the video. The same library that powers the daily game.
🔎
143 critters
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
Amber Snail
Grows pulsing fake caterpillars in its eyestalks
Anglerfish
Glowing rod on its head
Barreleye
Swivels its eyes inside a see-through skull
Blue Dragon
Steals its prey's stingers
Bone-Eating Worm
Melts into whale bone with acid-tipped roots
Darwin's Frog
Raises tadpoles inside his own throat pouch
Hairy Frog
Snaps its own toe bones into claws
Immortal Jellyfish
Biological immortality
Jewel Wasp
Stings a roach's brain and walks it like a dog
Mimic Octopus
Impersonates at least fifteen other sea creatures
Platypus
Senses electric fields with its bill
Portuguese Man o' War
Four kinds of creature fused into one drifter
Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Copies a single dead curled leaf, right down to the veins
Sea Angel
Fires six grabbing tentacles out of its head
Star-Nosed Mole
Eats in 8 milliseconds
Surinam Toad
Births from its own back
Tardigrade
Survives almost anything
Tongue-Eating Louse
Becomes a living replacement organ
White-Spotted Pufferfish
Carves 7-foot sand circles to win a mate
Antarctic Icefish
Runs on clear blood and built-in antifreeze
Antechinus
Mates itself to death in a two-week frenzy
Assassin Bug
Wears its victims' corpses
Axolotl
Regrows its own brain
Aye-Aye
Taps wood to find grubs
Bird of Paradise
Becomes a glowing smiley face
Bobbit Worm
Ambushes from the seabed and slices fish in half
Bolas Spider
Fakes moth perfume, then lassos moths mid-air
Bombardier Beetle
Fires boiling acid like a machine gun
Bowerbird
Builds a color-sorted art gallery
Boxer Crab
Fights with a live stinging anemone in each claw
Compass Termite
Builds compass-aligned towers that cool themselves
Cuttlefish
Hypnotic skin light show
Decorator Crab
Wears a living disguise
Fangtooth
Fangs so long its skull grew sockets to hold them
Frogfish
Swallows prey in about six milliseconds
Gharial
Blows courtship bubbles through a pot on its nose
Glass Frog
Turns transparent to vanish
Goblin Shark
Slingshot jaws
Greenland Shark
Lives roughly 400 years, longer than any vertebrate
Hagfish
Instant choking slime cloud
Hero Shrew
A spine that can take a grown man's weight
Hoatzin
Ferments leaves like a cow
Honeypot Ant
Turns its own workers into living food barrels
Hooded Seal
Inflates a red balloon out of one nostril
Horned Lizard
Shoots blood from its eyes
Kakapo
Booms a mating call that carries for miles
Leaf Sheep
Runs on stolen sunlight
Leafy Sea Dragon
Living seaweed disguise
Malleefowl
Runs a compost mound like a giant egg oven
Mantis Shrimp
Sonic bullet-punch + 16-colour vision
Marine Iguana
Shrinks its own skeleton when food runs out
Moray Eel
Launches a second set of jaws from its throat
Naked Mole Rat
Cancer-proof and pain-proof
Ocean Sunfish
Heaviest bony fish alive
Octopus
Nine independent brains
Olm
Survives over ten years without a single meal
Pangolin
Living armor that beats lions
Peacock Spider
Rainbow courtship dance
Pink Fairy Armadillo
Swims through solid sand
Pistol Shrimp
5,000° sonic bubble
Pompeii Worm
Wears a living fleece of heat-proof bacteria
Portia Spider
Works out a hunting route before it moves
Sarcastic Fringehead
Unfolds a mouth far wider than its own head
Sea Cucumber
Fires its own guts at attackers
Slow Loris
Licks its armpit to load a venomous bite
Tarsier
Eyes bigger than its brain
Trap-Jaw Ant
Jaws that snap shut at over 140 mph
Tuatara
A real third eye on top of its skull
Vampire Ground Finch
Drinks the blood of far bigger seabirds
Velvet Worm
Fires sticky slime nets
Wood Frog
Freezes solid and revives
Alligator Snapping Turtle
Wiggles a worm-shaped tongue to fish for dinner
Archerfish
Spits water bullets to down flying prey
Basilisk Lizard
Runs across water
Bearded Vulture
Drops bones from the sky to smash them open
Binturong
Smells like hot buttered popcorn on purpose
Blue-Ringed Octopus
Deadly venom with no cure
Caddisfly Larva
Builds wearable armour from riverbed rubble
Cassowary
Five-inch dagger kicks
Chameleon
Slingshot tongue twice its body length
Chinese Giant Salamander
Feels prey through vibration nodes in its skin
Chinese Water Deer
Swings sabre tusks out of its face to fight
Coconut Crab
Cracks coconuts with a lion-strength pinch
Colugo
Glides 200 feet on skin stretched to its fingertips
Cone Snail
Venom-loaded harpoon tooth
Crow
Never forgets a face
Desert Rain Frog
Squeaks a furious war cry instead of croaking
Draco Lizard
Unfolds wings from its ribs and glides between trees
Dung Beetle
Steers by the Milky Way
Flamingo
Eats its way to pink
Frigatebird
Flies for months nonstop
Frilled Lizard
Head-umbrella bluff
Gecko
Sticks to glass
Giant Isopod
Years without eating
Giant Squid
Eyes the size of dinner plates
Goliath Birdeater
Flicks burning barbed hairs
Greater Honeyguide
Recruits humans to break open bee nests
Honey Badger
Venom immunity + fearlessness
Hoopoe
Paints its eggs with germ-killing bacteria
Hornbill
Seals its mate inside a tree behind a mud wall
Hummingbird
1,200-bpm heart and backward flight
Japanese Spider Crab
Spans nearly 13 feet from leg tip to leg tip
Jerboa
Leaps ten times its own height to escape
Kangaroo Rat
Lives without ever drinking
Kiwi
Sniffs out buried worms with nostrils on its beak tip
Lyrebird
Perfect sound mimicry
Mudskipper
A fish that walks on land
Okapi
18-inch blue-black tongue
Opossum
Fakes its own death
Orchid Mantis
Lures bees by faking a flower
Potoo
Vanishes as dead wood
Proboscis Monkey
A giant nose that amplifies his honking calls
Saiga Antelope
Built-in air-filter nose
Secretary Bird
Stomps snakes to death
Shoebill Stork
Statue-still ambush strike
Sperm Whale
Sleeps bolt upright, hanging nose-up in the sea
Thorny Devil
Drinks water through its skin
Vampire Bat
Shares blood to save friends
Weaver Ant
Sews leaves shut using its own larvae as glue
Wombat
Cube-shaped poop
Woodpecker
A tongue that wraps around its own skull
Yapok
A pouch that seals watertight for diving
African Wild Dog
Votes on when to hunt by sneezing
Bat
Sees with sound
Cottontail Rabbit
Eats food twice
Electric Eel
860-volt living taser
Fennec Fox
Never needs to drink
Gerenuk
Stands on two legs to reach leaves rivals cannot
Harpy Eagle
Bone-crushing talons
Komodo Dragon
Venomous bite that crashes blood pressure
Maned Wolf
Tallest wild dog alive
Numbat
Licks up 20,000 termites a day with a half-body tongue
Quokka
Smiles through anything, and ditches its baby to escape
Raccoon
Sees the world by touch
Sea Otter
Holds hands to sleep
Skunk
Burning chemical spray
Sloth
Once-a-week danger run
Velvet Ant
A sting so brutal it's called the cow killer
Coyote
Thrives anywhere
Giraffe
Pumps blood two metres up with an 11kg heart
Owl
270° head + night vision
Peregrine Falcon
240 mph hunting dive
Squirrel
Accidental forest planter
Freshly caught? See what's new →