The Mandrill

Mandrills are very colorful! 

The mandrill is a type of monkey that is very colorful. Male mandrills have bright red and blue faces, fluffy yellow beards, and purple bottoms! A mandrill's colors become brighter when the animal is excited. Mandrills are one of the largest monkeys on earth, and the males are much bigger than the females - an average male weighs around 70 pounds and an average female weighs around 30 pounds. They live in the rain forests of Western Africa. 

Mandrills are omnivores with sharp front teeth, and mainly eat fruits, seeds, roots, insects and small animals. Their cheeks have built-in pouches that are used to store snacks for later. Males usually hunt for food, while female mandrills and their young spend time in the trees. Mandrills live in giant groups called hordes, which can contain up to 200 animals. Leopards, large snakes and birds of prey are the main predators of the mandrill. 

Cool Fact: The brighter a male mandrill's nose, the more important he is within his horde!

The Basilisk

Basilisks can run on the water!

The basilisk is a reptile found near rivers and streams in Central and South America. It is best known for its ability to run on water! Flaps between their toes help support them, giving them the buoyancy, or lightness, needed to run on top of the water on their hind legs. As they quickly move their legs, they slap their feet hard against the water, creating a tiny air pocket that keeps them from sinking. Basilisks can move along the water's surface like this for 15 feet or more, as long as they maintain their speed. Once they start sinking, basilisks are excellent swimmers and can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes. They do this as a way to escape predators. They also can climb trees and bury themselves in sand. 

Basilisks are omnivores and like to eat fruit, flowers, insects, and small animals like snakes, birds and fish. Some of a basilisk's predators are harpy eagles and tree boas. Basilisks are solitary animals, and spend their days looking for food and lying in the sun. Basilisks lay eggs and each female can lay up to 10 to 20 eggs per year. An average basilisk measures 2 to 2.5 feet long. 

Cool Fact: Basilisks can run up to 5 feet per second across the surface of water. 

The Axolotl

Look how cool this axolotl is!
Photo: Pinterest

An axolotl is one of the strangest animals on earth. It is an amphibian that is born as larva. Although it gets bigger, it never goes through metamorphosis, or changes into an adult, so it looks like a larva for its entire life. Axolotl (ak-suh-lot-uhl) comes from an old Aztec word meaning "water servant." These creatures are very rare, and only live in one lake near Mexico City, Mexico. 

Axolotls have small legs and feet and a long tail. They have a dorsal fin that runs from its head to its tail, and under the tail to its back legs. Because it never develops lungs, axolotls have frilly gills on the sides of their heads which they use to breathe. Axolotls born in the wild are usually gray, green or black, but ones in tanks are usually pale pink. These animals are carnivores and eat worms, insects and small fish.

Cool Fact: If an axolotl gets hurt, it can regrow body parts, and can even replace a leg, eye, lung, tail or part of a heart!

The Quokka

Look how cute the quokka is!
Photo: Pinterest 

The quokka (pronounced "kwaa-ka") is one of the cutest little animals. In fact, they are known as the "happiest animal on earth" because of it's cute little smile. Quokkas are very rare and are only found on an island called Rottnest, west of Australia. These animals are a protected species in Australia and cannot be kept as pets or taken out of the country. In fact, it is even illegal to pet them!

Quokkas are marsupials, and carry their babies in pouches. Quokkas give birth to one baby at a time called a joey. Quokkas are good climbers and swimmers, but spend most of their time on land. They are herbivores and eat leaves, shrubs, grasses and plants, and they love munching on swamp peppermint. After they swallow their food, the bring it back up and chew it a second time, likely to help them get more nutrients from the leaves. Quokkas are social animals and like to live in groups. 

Cool Fact: When in danger, quokkas are known to throw their babies out of their pouches as a way to distract the threat or predator. 

The Red Panda

Red pandas look a lot like racoons,
which are one of their closes relatives.
Photo: Pinterest 

A red panda is a very cute animal. It has a sweet little face and a soft bushy tail. But a red panda is actually not a panda, or a bear. One of its closest relatives is the raccoon! 

Red pandas live in the mountain forests of Asia and spend most of their time in trees. They make a funny twittering, grunting noise called a "huff-quack." Red pandas are omnivores. They eat mostly bamboo, but also eat eggs, birds and insects. They are most active from dusk until dawn, and are not very active during the day. 

The red panda's long tail helps it balance on branches. It can also twist its ankles around to point backward which allows it to climb down trees headfirst! The red panda is an endangered species, with fewer than 10,000 of them left in the wild. 

Cool Fact: Red pandas are small animals, about the size of a pet cat!

The Wolverine

Wolverines have strong, powerful bodies. 
Photo: National Wildlife Federation

Wolverines are members of the weasel family. They are found in the northern parts of North America, Europe and Asia, and in the Arctic region. The wolverine has two coats of fur to keep it warm. The top coat has very long fur that is frost resistant. The second coat underneath is very soft and very thick. Wolverines also have large, furry feet that act like snow shoes and help them walk quickly and easily in the snow. 

A wolverine will eat just about anything including mice, deer, bird eggs, berries, and prey left behind by other animals, also called carrion. It is known to bury unfinished food to eat later when it's hungry. Measuring up to 3.5 feet long, wolverines are world's strongest animal for its size. They have powerful bodies and jaws and can hunt animals as large as caribou and moose! 

Cool Fact: Hungry wolverines will eat the skin, feet, teeth and even the bones of their prey!

The Okapi

The okapi has legs that look like a zebra.
Photo: SanDiegoZoo.org

An okapi is a rare mammal. It belongs to the giraffe family and is known as the forest giraffe, although it has a much shorter neck. They live in the rain forests around the Congo River in Africa. Okapis have brown bodies and white stripes on their legs, like a zebra, which help them to camouflage. Their thick, oily fur helps them stay dry in the rain. Males have short horns on their heads. Okapis are herbivores and they have long black tongues to help them eat tree leaves and buds, fruits, grasses, ferns and fungi. They have poor eyesight, but good senses of smell and hearing. Leopards are the main predator of the okapi.

The okapi was not discovered until the year 1900. Unfortunately they are now endangered, but are protected by law.

Cool Fact: An okapi can eat 45 to 60 pounds of food per day!

The Pangolin

Pangolins are also known as scaly anteaters.
Photo: Pangolins.org

Pangolins are the only mammals covered in scales. There are seven species of pangolins which can be found in Africa and Asia. Some live in trees and others live on the ground. Their scales act like a suit of armor. They make the animal look like a pine cone! When they are scared they roll into balls to protect themselves. Even predators like lions struggle to get the pangolin unrolled but the scales protect it! 

Pangolins have huge, powerful front claws that act like a digger. Some use them to make burrows underground. Pangolins don't have teeth, but they have a long sticky tongue like an ant eater. Pangolins are nocturnal and eat at night, using their claws to tear open ant and termite nests and eat the insects inside. 

Cool Fact: Some pangolin claws are strong enough to break through soil that is as hard as concrete!

The Platypus

The platypus lives near streams and rivers.
Photo: Brittanica.com

A platypus is a silly looking animal! It has the body of an otter, the mouth, nose and webbed feet of a duck, and the tail of a beaver! This is a very cool animal. It lives in streams in Eastern Australia. The platypus uses its sensitive, rubbery beak like a scanner, swishing it back and forth underwater picking up tiny electrical signals coming from creatures hidden near by. Because of this ability, it can find worms hidden in the mud or shrimp hiding under a rock. It has no teeth, but uses hard pads in its beak to grind up its food. When underwater, it swims with its eyes and ears shut, using its beak to find food. 

A platypus is a rare type of animal called a monotreme, which means it is a mammal that lays eggs! A female platypus lays two to three eggs at a time, which are about as big as pigeon eggs. A baby platypus is born without a beak. The beak forms after it stops drinking its mother's milk and starts hunting on its own. 

Cool Fact: Each back leg of the male platypus has a sharp venomous claw!

 

The Jaguar

Jaguars are good climbers. Photo credit: WWF.org

The Jaguar lives in forests and savannas in Central America and South America and can be found in the Amazon rainforest. It is a good swimmer and climber. A jaguar has yellow to reddish-brown fur covered with black spots. A jaguar's spots help them to camouflage. While most jaguars have spots, the black jaguar is very rare.

The jaguar is a fierce predator, one of the fiercest in the Amazon. A carnivore with sharp teeth, it prefers to eat capybara and giant ant eaters. It also eats wild boar, common caiman, deer and fish. The jaguar lives and hunts by itself.  

Cool Fact: Jaguar jaws are strong enough to crack through tortoise shells!

Question: Which is bigger - a leopard or a jaguar? Leave your answer in the comments!

The Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian devil is ferocious looking! They have strong teeth that can bite through just about anything. They can be found in Tasmania, which is an island off the southern coast of Australia. Tasmanian devils are the world's biggest meat-eating marsupial, which means they carry their babies in pouches. They like to live near rivers, and eats birds, lizards, snakes, frogs, rodents and large insects. It is also a scavenger, eating the remains that other animals leave behind. It is nocturnal, so it hunts at night and sleeps during the day. 

Cool Fact: A Tasmanian devil's ears turn bright red when it's scared!