The fauna of our planet will never cease to amaze us with the presence of amazing creatures of the most unusual shapes and colors. Some of them are so whimsical that it seems that nature created them in a playful mood. We present to your attention another portion of the most amazing, unusual and little-known creatures from different parts of the globe.

 

Blue-footed Booby

Blue-footed Booby

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Blue-footed Booby

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Blue-footed Booby

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Blue-footed Booby

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Blue-footed Booby

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The blue-footed booby is a seabird that lives in the tropical waters of the American west coast from the California Peninsula to Peru. The legs of the birds have bright blue swimming membranes, a hallmark of this species. The blue legs of males play a significant role during the mating season. Females prefer the male with blue-colored legs and disdain the male, whose legs look blue-gray.

The blue-footed booby breeds mainly in the Galapagos Islands, as well as on the arid islands of the Gulf of California, on the west coast of Mexico, on islands near Ecuador and northern Peru. Of the 40,000 pairs of these birds, about half live in the Galapagos Islands, where blue-footed boobies are protected by law.

The diet of blue-footed boobies consists exclusively of fish that they hunt in the sea. They fly over the surface of the sea and look out for fish, while the beak is always directed downward. When they find suitable prey, they fold their wings and dive swiftly into the water like arrows, and if successful, appear with a fish in their beak at a distance of several meters from the dive site.

Interesting fact

Blue-footed boobies usually dive into the water from a height of 10–30 meters, and sometimes even from 100 meters. At the same time, they are immersed in water at a speed of about 97 km/h and can sink to a depth of 25 meters! Their skulls contain special air sacs that protect the brain from enormous pressure.

It is also interesting that birds hunt fish not during the dive, but during the ascent. The reason for this is the bright, light silver pattern on the belly of the fish. Sometimes they also catch flying fish in the air if they are moving over water.

 

Striped hyena

Striped hyena

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Striped hyena

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Striped hyena

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Striped hyena

flickr.com

Striped hyena

wikimedia.org

The striped hyena is the only hyena found outside the African continent. It is found throughout northern Africa, in a significant part of Asia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Bay of Bengal. On the territory of the former USSR it is found in Armenia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, but everywhere it is very rare and protected.

The striped hyena prefers foothills with dry channels, gullies, ravines, rocky gorges and labyrinths of caves. Willingly inhabits areas overgrown with dense shrubs.

The striped hyena is predominantly a nocturnal animal, although it occasionally roams during the day. Unlike the common (spotted) hyena, it does not form flocks. Feeds mostly on carrion. In principle, the striped hyena is practically omnivorous – it catches any living creatures that it is able to cope with and that it can catch up with, eats insects, and destroys ground nests of birds.

The hyena is a timid and cowardly, but at the same time impudent animal. It is easily tamed, but even in captivity it often remains vicious and quarrelsome. Most of the information about the behavior and lifestyle of the striped hyena is obtained through observations in enclosures. In nature, it is difficult to observe the striped hyena due to its rarity, cautious behavior and inaccessibility of habitats.

In principle, the striped hyena can bring certain harm to the peasants. The immediate damage from it is sometimes quite large – a hyena is able to drag a lamb or a chicken, spoil the garden in search of fruits, eat fruits laid out for drying, or dried fish. In countries with intensive crop production, hyenas often bite the hoses that carry water to the beds to get drunk. But in general, due to the small number, the hyena is not capable of greatly harming peasant farms.

 

Strawberry Poison Frog

Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

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Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

wikipedia.org

Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

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Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

wikipedia.org

Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

wikipedia.org

Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

wikimedia.org

Small dart frog or strawberry poison frog

flickr.com

The little dart frog is a small tropical frog known as the strawberry poison frog. Although it is not the most poisonous in the family of poison dart frogs, it is the most toxic representative of its kind. The strawberry poison frog is perhaps best known for its wide variety of skin colours, with up to 30 color variations.

These frogs are found in the tropical forests of the Caribbean coast of Central America, from Nicaragua to Panama.

The length of small poison dart frogs is 17–24 mm. Bright coloring has several purposes. First, it warns predators that the amphibian is poisonous. Secondly, bright males protect their territory more strongly, and the earlier they react to the appearance of a competitor, the brighter it is. Thirdly, females choose brighter males.

Dart frogs can only exist in a humid environment. They move in the shade on the ground or along the branches of low bushes. Mobile and dexterous frogs make short jumps and only in exceptional cases stop and freeze in place. Suction cups on the toes of their paws help them stick to plants.

Adults feed mainly on ants, but also eat other small insects and spiders. The toxins contained in the ants are concentrated in the skin glands, turning into a deadly poison.

The dart frogs have only one enemy – the snake, on which their poison does not work.

 

Addax

Addax (or Mendes antelope, or white antelope)

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Addax (or Mendes antelope, or white antelope)

wikipedia.org

Addax (or Mendes antelope, or white antelope)

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Addax (or Mendes antelope, or white antelope)

wikimedia.org

Addax (or Mendes antelope, or white antelope) – translated from the Latin "Addax" as a wild animal with twisted horns. Indeed, these animals have unusual thin horns directed backwards, spirally twisted in 1,5–3 turns. Moreover, horns are available for both males and females and reach 109 cm in length in males and 80 cm in females.

They are not limited to territories and wander in search of food throughout the distribution zone, moving after the rains.

Previously, addax was found in deserts and semi-deserts from Western Sahara and Mauritania to Egypt and Sudan. The present range has been reduced to a few desert areas in northeastern Niger, northern and central Chad, northwestern Mali, eastern Mauritania, southern Libya, and southwestern Sudan. Addax are found in sandy and rocky deserts.

Addaxes are most active between dusk and dawn, the coldest time in the Sahara. They move across deserts in a herd of 5–20 animals led by an adult male. To avoid strong winds and blinding sun, addaxes dig holes in the sand with their front feet in which they rest, often in the shade of bushes or large rocks.

Interesting fact

Addaxes, like camels, are adapted to hot climates by being able to raise their body temperature more than other mammals, minimizing water loss when the animals sweat to cool themselves.

Addax feed on grasses and low shrubs. They cover long distances in the desert in search of rare vegetation. Among all antelopes, addaxes are the most adapted to life in the desert. They go without drinking water for most of their lives, and get the water they need to survive from the plants they feed on.

Addaxes are heavy and slow animals, making them easy prey for humans equipped with modern weapons. The meat and leather are highly valued by the locals, who use the leather to make shoes. Hunting has reduced and destroyed the populations of these animals in many areas of their natural distribution. Therefore, these animals are listed in the IUCN Red List.

 

Horseshoe crab

Horseshoe crab

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Horseshoe crab

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Horseshoe crab

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Horseshoe crab

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Horseshoe crabs live mainly in and around shallow coastal waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms. The horseshoe crab is so named because its entire body is protected by a hard, horseshoe-shaped shell.

Their popular name is a misnomer, as they are not crustaceans like real crabs. Horseshoe crabs resemble crustaceans but belong to a separate subphylum of arthropods, Chelicerata.

Given their origin 450 million years ago, horseshoe crabs are considered living fossils.

Horseshoe crabs are most often found on the ocean floor looking for worms and shellfish, which are their main food. They can also feed on crustaceans and even small fish.

Horseshoe crabs are divided into 4 types. Females are 20-30% larger than males. The males of the smallest species of horseshoe crab are about 30 cm long, including the tail, which is about 15 cm, and their shell is about 15 cm wide. In the largest species, females can reach 79,5 cm in length, including the tail, and up to 4 kg in weight.