Some animals are plain weird

[LaFille]

...Like this fish with a transparent head. Had to pass this one on. ;D

(Feel welcomed to post about those weird beasties you might have come across too!)

[Elliot Kane]

...Stranger than fiction indeed!

[Galadriel]

That's one weird fishie! Most of the weirdest animals are to be found in the sea I guess. Look what I found...
a blobfish, scary little bugger isn't?

And how about this one...

The Axolotl (or ajolote) (Ambystoma mexicanum) is the best-known of the Mexican neotenic mole salamanders belonging to the Tiger Salamander complex. Larvae of this species fail to undergo metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species originates from the lake underlying Mexico City. Axolotls are used extensively in scientific research due to their ability to regenerate most body parts, ease of breeding, and large embryos. They are commonly kept as pets in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Japan (where they are sold under the name Wooper Rooper, and other countries.

Axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum and Ambystoma mavortium), which is widespread in much of North America which also occasionally become neotenic, nor with mudpuppies (Necturus spp.), fully aquatic salamanders which are unrelated to the axolotl but which bear a superficial resemblance.

What I think we find weird or funny on certain animals, is that they have facial features like we do, like eyes, a mouth and a nose. Go figure how funny we look actually ;D

[killerzzz]

Ooo, that fish is rad, Fille!

Feb 24, 2009 9:51:57 GMT Galadriel said:

And how about this one...

so i hear u liek mudkips?



Killerzzz

[Hildor]

Mudkipz?

That transparant-head fish is really, really weird.

Ever heard about the Portugese warship?

animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/portuguese-man-o-war.jpg

Those tentacles can grow meters and meters long

[Galadriel]

Feb 25, 2009 8:25:45 GMT Hildor said:

Mudkipz?

That transparant-head fish is really, really weird.

Ever heard about the Portugese warship?

animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/portuguese-man-o-war.jpg

Those tentacles can grow meters and meters long

Ugh What a freaky thing

@ Killerzzz

[LaFille]

Lol, that blobfish wears its name so well... It looks like a magic experiment gone wrong. And yeah, those little salamanders are way cool! Salamanders would be declining, it would seem,unfortunately (recent article here).

I had never heard of the Portugese Man O'War; a 4-in-1 killer, highly interesting, thanks! ;D

It's true that the oceans probably hold the weirdest creatures... Sea slugs and worms can be weird but also incredibly pretty...

Glaucus atlanticus


Christmas Tree Worms


This critter is aerian and you Europeans may be familiar with it, but I found it so crazy: the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth.

[LaFille]

Recently discovered, a hopping fish that would take away any complex that Nemo might have had (click here for short video).

[Galadriel]

What a cute fishie! And indeed very weird to see it use his feet to move around

[killerzzz]

Oh, I love hummingbird-moths! They're so trippy and cool to see!

They're big, fun to watch, and you can clearly see them drinking the nectar from a flower, which is also neat.

Killerzzz

[LaFille]

Where did you see hummingbird moths? ;D

I only saw a hummingbird once so far... And I almost knocked it off for scaring the hell out of me with its sound of giant mutant bumblebee, lol. (I only realized what it was after it passed near my head.)

[The Sonar Chicken]

Feb 24, 2009 9:51:57 GMT Galadriel said:

And how about this one...

How cute.

[LaFille]

Mar 1, 2009 4:27:35 GMT LaFille said:

Recently discovered, a hopping fish that would take away any complex that Nemo might have had (click here for short video).

I just happened on this blog entry with much better photos of the hopping fishie here. It shows better why they called it the psychedelic fish... To me it looks a little like an old sad clown, lol.

Also newly discovered, the Australian "rainbow glow" jellyfish.

[kitty]

I find al of those totally awesome

Oh - and I had an Axolotl before they come on black or white (albinos) too.

[LaFille]

So, today we have flying reptiles:

Chrysopelea snakes


Draco lizards


Check them out in action here:
video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/reptiles-animals/lizards/flying_reptiles.html

The video that follows this one, about a blood-squirting lizard is cool too (though a little creepy).

[Alrik]

I have personally never seen this moth, but friends of mine claim so, in a recent discussion.

Me, I'm rather into weird fossilized animals.

My current favourite is the Tully monster, or also known as Tullymonstrum or Tully Monstrum.

www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/symbols/fossil.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullimonstrum_gregarium
www.isgs.illinois.edu/maps-data-pub/publications/geobits/geobit5.shtml

[LaFille]

That's a weird body shape; must not be evident to swallow food with a neck like that. ;D

It reminded me some of the moray eels, that are quite otherworldly... They have a second jaw in the throat that comes out to grab the food, like the alien from the movie! Article and images here.

There would also be gliding frogs recently discovered in the Himalaya area, along with a bunch of other cool creatures...

[LaFille]

Check out these beautiful jellyfishes discovered in the last decade in the Arctic's depths...

Especially the "Sea Angel" and Siphonophore Colony.

[Hand-E-Food]

Bizarre... Those red strands make it look completely artificial.

[LaFille]

The Honey Badger

The honey badger (Mellivora capensis, Ratel) is a member of the Mustelidae family. The honey badger is distributed throughout most of Africa and western and south Asian areas of Baluchistan (eastern Iran), southern Iraq, Pakistan and Rajasthan (western India). It is the only species in the genus Mellivora and the subfamily Mellivorinae. The badgers have been named the most fearless animal in the Guinness Book of World Records.

[...]

Behavior

The honey badger is found in arid grasslands and savannahs. Honey badgers are fierce carnivores with a keen sense of smell. They are known for their snake-killing abilities; they use their jaws to grab a snake behind its head and kill it. Honey badgers can devour a snake (150 cm/5ft or less) in 15 minutes.

Badgers have a large appetite for beehives. Commercial honey producers do not take kindly to this destruction and sometimes shoot, trap, or poison badgers they suspect of damaging their hives, although badger-proof commercial bee hives have been developed.

[...]

The badger is among the fiercest hunters in its range, with prey including earthworms, insects, scorpions, porcupines, hares, ground squirrels, meerkats, mongooses, and larger prey such as tortoises, crocodiles up to one metre in size, young gazelle and snakes (including pythons and venomous species). They also take lizards, small rodents, birds and fruit. The badger's ferocious reputation reflects its tendency to attack animals larger than itself; it is seldom preyed upon.

In a 2002 National Geographic documentary titled "Snake killers: Honey badgers of the Kalahari", a badger named Kleinman was documented stealing a meal out of a puff adder's mouth and casually eating the meal in front of the hissing snake. After the meal, Kleinman began to hunt the puff adder, the species being one of the badger's preferred venomous snakes. He managed to kill the snake and began eating it, but then collapsed on the dead snake as he had been bitten during the struggle. After about two hours he surprisingly awoke. Once his paralysis had subsided, the badger continued with his meal and then resumed his journey.

[...]

Honey badgers are intelligent animals,and are one of few species capable of using tools. In the 1997 documentary series Land of the Tiger, a honey badger in India was filmed making use of a tool. The animal rolled a log and stood on it to reach a kingfisher fledgling stuck up in the roots coming from the ceiling in an underground cave.

[...]

In a recent study (2009) undertaken by the magazine Scientific American it has been found that pound for pound the honey badger is the world's most fearsome land mammal as a result of its favourable claw to body ratio and aggressive behavioural tendencies.

Predators

Adult honey badgers rarely serve as prey for pythons, wolves, bears, lions, tigers and leopards; their ferocity and thick, loose skin makes it difficult to grip or suffocate them. It is able to twist inside its own skin and bite whatever is holding it. Last year in South Africa, there were accounts of a mother lion and her lone cub with a honey badger. The lioness was carrying a honey badger in its mouth. The honey badger turned around in its tough loose skin and severely bit the lioness. She dropped the honey badger, which trotted away unharmed. However the lioness was badly injured. No one knows if she survived the honey badger's bite or not.

Mating and cubs

Once a female honey badger comes into heat, courtship is energetic. After days of deliberation, a male is accepted as a mating partner, and the badgers will remain in a burrow for three to four days of mating. The female badger will give birth to a cub two months later. As it grows, it learns to be aggressive to any other creature (e.g., curious jackals) as it travels across the desert. It relies on its mother for food and shelter as they regularly move and she digs new burrows. Cubs can handicap a badger's hunting; therefore, they are usually left at the den, where they can be vulnerable. Other honey badgers may drag cubs from their dens and eat them. Due in part to cannibalistic threats such as this, only half of badger cubs live to adulthood.