Strange Looking Animals
We often speak about animal cruelty, but how universal is your love for animals in general? Would you go the extra mile to save these animals?
Try looking beyond the differences, and not let our sight influence our ability to care for beings that we find strange by our standards. Due to karma and it’s complexities, beings can take on all types of forms in samsara. It is interesting to see how karma manifests. (Nice to share these animals with children)
Tsem Rinpoche
Some unusual looking animals:
Cantor’s Giant Soft-Shelled Turtle
The turtle is found primarily in inland, slow-moving fresh water rivers and streams. Cantor’s giant soft-shelled turtle can grow up to 6 feet (about 2 meters) in length and weigh more than 100 pounds (about 50 kilograms).
It is primarily carnivorous.
The turtle spends 95% of its life buried and motionless, with only its eyes and mouth protruding out of the sand. It surfaces only twice a day to breath, and lays eggs in February or March on riverbanks.
Matamata Turtle
Translated from Spanish, Matamata means “I kill, I kill” because all of its characteristics are directed towards one goal: Its mode of eating.
The head and neck is large and flat, and covered with numerous protuberances, wards, and ridges; which serves as an excellent camouflage.
However, do not be fooled by the name. The Matamata is a docile species as it is neither able nor inclined to bite with any effectiveness.
Patagonian Cavy (Mara)
The Patagonian Cavy is number three on the list of giant rodents. It may not be the largest rodent, but it’s definitely the most unusual looking, bearing a striking resemblance to the mythical jackalope. It’s described as a cross between an antelope, a rabbit, and a kangaroo.
When startled, it can leap up to six feet straight into the air and is capable of reaching 35 miles/hour while running.
Saiga Antelope
Saiga is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There is an estimated total number of 50,000 Saigas today, which live in Kalmykia, three areas of Kazakhstan and in two isolated areas of Mongolia.
It has an extremely distinctive appearance with an enlarged nose that hangs down over the mouth. These ungulates are thought to be intermediates between antelopes and sheep.
Star Nosed Mole
The Star-nosed Mole lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and molluscs. It is a good swimmer and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. Like other moles, this animal digs shallow surface tunnels for foraging; often, these tunnels exit underwater.
The incredibly sensitive nasal tentacles are covered with almost one hundred thousand minute touch receptors known as Eimer’s organs..
Elephant Shrew
Elephant shrews are not true shrews, but are more closely related to aardvarks, golden moles, and tenrecs. They are widely distributed across the southern part of Africa.
Elephant shrews take their name from their long pointed head and very long, trunk-like nose. Long, slim legs and a characteristic hunchbacked posture give them the appearance of a miniature antelope or perhaps a tiny pig with a long tail.
Long-Beaked Echidna
Long Beaked Echidna is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.
Found in New Guinea (Indonesia) and Papua New Guinea, their most distinguishing feature is their long-snouts, which curve downwards and accounts for two-thirds of the length of the head. They have no teeth; instead their tongues are covered in spikes (teeth-like projections), which are effective in hooking prey and drawing it into the mouth.
They differ from other mammals in that they lay shell-covered eggs that are incubated and hatched outside the body of the mother.
Pink Fairy Armadillo
It is found in central Argentina where it inhabits dry grasslands and sandy plains with thorn bushes and cacti. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if frightened.
The Pink Fairy Armadillo burrows small holes near ant colonies in dry dirt. It feeds mainly on ants and ant larvae near its burrow.
Long-Eared Jerboa
“The Mickey Mouse of the desert”, the Long-Eared Jerboa is a mouse-like rodent with a long tail, long hind legs for jumping, and exceptionally large ears.
Classified as endangered by the IUCN, the Long-Eared Jerboa is mainly found in China and Mongolia.
Axolotl Salamander
The Axolotl is a fascinating creature for reasons such as its grotesque appearance and for exhibiting the phenomenon known as neoteny.
Axolotls have amazing healing and regenerating abilities, such as complete limb re-growth.
Thorny Devil
An amazing Australian reptile, this creature is covered in thorns. Despite its appearance, it is totally harmless.
The thorny devil, a creature of the desert, has the ability to collect rainwater with its back, allowing the water to run down its body, eventually finding its way to the mouth where the water is consumed.
Frill-Necked Lizard
Considered one of the most familiar of Australia’s dragon lizards, the most incredible aspect of this small lizard is its frill, which rises instinctively when the lizard is startled or becomes alarmed.
Aye Aye
Found only on the island of Madagascar, these rare animals may not look like primates at first glance, but they are related to chimpanzees and humans.
The aye aye is the only primate known to use echolocation to locate its prey.
Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye aye an ill omen. For this reason they are often killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction have made the aye aye critically endangered (IUCN).
Blobfish
The Blobfish is a type of fish found off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. It is usually found at a depth of 800 meters.
The Blobfish is almost entirely comprised of gelatinous substances, which keeps it from sinking. Having no muscles at all, they just float in the same spot most of the time waiting for their next meal.
Unlike most fish, the female Blobfish will actually stay with her eggs, in some cases literally sitting on the eggs.
Dumbo Octopus
The Dumbo octopus can be found in all oceans. It is strange compared to others of its kind as it prefers to swallow its prey whole.
The Dumbo octopus got its name from the two fins which look like and are situated like ears. It will swim using these larger fins and with the help of its arms, it is a formidable swimmer.
Vampire Squid
The Vampire squid is a unique member of the cephalopod family in that it shares similarities with both squid and octopi.
It has very gelatinous form, resembling a jellyfish more than the common squid, and its eight arms are connected with a webbing of skin, which makes it look more like an octopus.
The vampire squid has very large eyes; in fact, it has the largest eye to body ratio of any animal in the world!
Slender Loris
Slender Lorises are so-named because of their long, slender arms and legs. They have excellent night vision which allows them to hunt during the night.
The red slender loris is endemic to Sri Lanka, and its relative, the grey slender loris is also found in India.
This species is among the most sociable of the nocturnal primates.
The tears of the slender loris have reportedly been used in traditional charms and love potions.
Tarsier
The name Tarsier is derived from the animal’s very long ankle bones. The tibia and fibula of the tarsiers are fused in their lower portions, acting as a shock absorber. The lower limbs are twice the length of its trunk which enables the Tarsier to leap about 3 meters from tree to tree with a movement similar to that of a frog.
Tarsiers are often labeled as the ‘World’s smallest monkey’. However, it is not a monkey, and its classification is somewhat problematic.
In the Philippines, before any action was taken to protect the species, the practice of catching them and then selling them as stuffed Tarsiers to tourists drove them to the point of near-extinction.
Giant Isopod
The Giant Isopod is a living fossil, and has not evolved for 130 million years
It is the largest known member of the isopod family, and the enormous size is the result of a phenomenon known as deep sea gigantism.
As a deep sea creature, the Giant Isopod is able to survive for more than 8 weeks without any food.
Mandarin Fish (Dragonet)
The Mandarin Fish has arguably one of the most attractive coloration and patterns of any commonly kept reef fish. These fish are also sometimes called Psychedelic Fish due to their rather bizarre coloration
Male Proboscis Monkey
Found only on the island of Borneo, the Proboscis Monkey gets its name from its large, fleshy nose which has several functions. The nose swells and turns red when it becomes excited or angry. The Proboscis Monkey also makes loud honking sounds as a warning when it senses danger, which make the nose stand out straight. The nose also acts as a resonator when the monkey vocalizes.
Another obvious characteristic of the Proboscis Monkey is its large pot belly. As a colobine monkey, it has a unique digestive system that allows it to use leaves as the main food supply.
Bush Dog
The Bush Dog is found in Central and South America, from Panama to Argentina. It is a carnivore and hunts during the day, preferably in wet savannahs and tropical and equatorial forests. Although it can hunt alone on occasion, the Bush Dog is usually found in small packs of up to 10–12 individuals.
Bush Dogs are semi-aquatic and can dive underwater with great ease, partly because of their webbed feet.
Lowland Streaked Tenrec
With its black and yellow stripes, the lowland streaked tenrec resembles both a hedgehog and a shrew, and is found only in Madagascar.
Streaked tenrecs are known to communicate using high-pitch tongue clicks when foraging but many of the sounds are beyond the range of the human ear.
Pallas Cat
Pallas cats are small cats which live in the rocky areas and deserts from Iran to China and Mongolia. Its appearance is a bit unusual, with a broad head, tiny ears, big eyes, and stocky limbs.
They have the ability to move stealthily which makes them good predators, and have been known to sneak up on their prey even with very few plants to hide in.
Interestingly, a Pallas cat’s eyes have a nictitating (blinking) membrane found at its corner. This acts as another eyelid.
The Pallas cat is listed as near-threatened, and is likely to qualify for the ‘threatened’ category in the near future.
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Weird and strange creatures yet they are still animals we should save them. All are very rare species which I have not seen before. Very weird animals which includes the unknown, unexplained, unidentified and are terrifying to see.
As long as we leave them alone and not harming them it will be fine. If we harm them or kill them , all these animals in no time will be extinct and lost.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
I bumped into this article by accident,and it’s really interesting to see so many types of strange and unusual types of animals. Thank you very much Rinpoche for sharing these cute animals! ??
Wow, this is really a list of animals that are rare and uncommon. Some of them has the most weird looking outlook but actually they are gentle and harmless. While some of them looks soft and cute but actually can be lethal. Just like people, we must not judge a book by its cover.
Very weird and strange creatures which i have not come across before .The first sight looks scary to me but interesting to know the true facts of it which came from different countries across the globe. There might be more strange creatures around which the researchers have not found them yet. Well it is best to leave them alone or else those weird creatures will be extinct in the near future. Give them a chance and they deserve to live in the wild or sea or anywhere they belong and call home.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article of these unusual animals that are near extinction. These are some of the animals that we don’t normally see and they can be dangerous. To me, if these animals do not harm us then we should not go and disturb them and harm them.
With folded palms,
Vivian
There are a lot of weird looking and some pretty nasty and scary looking animals in the world. But I think there are equally a lot of weird looking people and some pretty nasty and scary looking people in the world.
Even among human, we segregate, we categorize, we create distinction. We rely on our visual perception a lot to determine our reaction. We like things that look pretty and react negatively towards things that are not pleasant to our eyes.
Sometimes I think if we are without sight, it may be easier for us to see beyond the differences and not let our sight influence how we treat other beings.
Our senses often are a hinder, an obstacle to our spirituality, to finding our true nature because it creates perception and distraction.
The Tarsiers look pretty scary, their stare is actually kind of creepy, they look like mini witches who live on trees. I’ve never seen animals like these except for one or two of them, I wish they didn’t have to extinct so fast…
Dear Rinpoche, I think the weirdest looking animals are Saiga Antelope, Aye Aye, Elephant Shrew, Axolotl Salamander,
Lowland Streaked Tenrec, Bush Dog and Giant Isopod. Actually the Aye Aye is quite scary, especially when you just finished reading a ghost story book and it is during night time. And to me…. the bush dog is so cute that I might accidentally kill it because its too fluffy. I guess I should stay away from the cute animals.
These wonderful animals really do have weird faces, the weirdest would be the blobfish and aye aye, they look seriously abnormal, especially the aye aye. It would be so good if some of the species were not endangered, they are beautiful living beings though they look strange.
Some of these are so cute, especially the Axolotl Salamander. He just looked more like a toy than a living creature (maybe man kind was inspired by its existence, and therefore able to create something cute). Blobfish just kind of reminded me of the Sandman from Marvel, maybe because it is without muscle and has almost the same features I presume. This is a very interesting information for me to share around. Thank you Rinpoche for always posting up something rare and interesting for us to read and share.
Dear Rinpoche, to me the Star Nosed Mole is really ugly not only because it doesn’t have eyes it’s also because of its tentacles around its mouth. And the Axolotl Salamander looks really like a Pokemon, I really wish that I could have the chance to look at it.
Giant Isopod isn’t actually that special, there are also many more living fossils in this world, I’ve heard that a island called Madagascar have many undiscovered animals.
Wowww! These animals sure look interesting, I didn’t even know that some of them do exist. I think the one who has the most creepiest look would be the Tarsier, it kinda gives me the ‘you-better-watch-out’ look..haha..
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
I think the dumbo octopus is quite cute hehe… we always bother ourselves on how we look like most of the time but in actuality, what happens if you reincarnate as one of these creatures?
There are so many strange creatures out there that is still undiscovered… in fact recently I read about a slug that lives with solar power! How strange is that!
I have the strange implication that all these strange creatures were the inspiration for Pokemon. The turtles may have been the inspiration for Blastoise and the Axolotl Salamander would have been the inspiration for the famous pokemon called Mudkip. Hahaha, I just received such a nostalgia attack. Thank you for sharing this post.
Wow, these are yet indeed very odd looking animals. Most of them, i never even knew that the were alive anymore, i had never seen animals such as these. They ar so special. With their looks and i bet even how they might behave is different and special compared to other animals. I really would like to see one of these in real life. I think that my favourite animal here is the Mandarin fish. This one is my favourite because its so colourful and it look good!
This is so cool! I’ve never seen any of these animals in TV nor magazine before, all of them look so unique. It’s very sad to learn that all these creatures are endangered. We, humans have destroyed their habitats..
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this article. I have seen many weird looking animals but not these. My favorite weird looking animals in this article are long eared jerboa, axolotl salamander, dumbo octopus, slender loris and bush dog. They are all so cute, imagine if you have these weird creatures as pets. I dream is to become a vet so that animals will be save. Thank you for reading
THESE CREATURES ARE UNBELIEVABLE! SO COOL! ❤
These animals look so cute. I think that the aye aye is the cutest of them all. The soft shelled turtle looks a bit like it was rolled over by a rolling pin. The Matamata turtle looks scary but has a gentle nature, just like some people in the world as some people look very fierce but deep in their heart they are quite soft. The Axolotl Salamander looks like something that came out of the video game called Pokemon. I remember that one of the other characteristics of the Thorny Lizard is that it squirts blood from its eyes. The Giant Isopod looks like a huge cockroach.
There are not only strange animals in existence but in humans too. This is the different types of Karma when sentient beings take their rebirth. These are not surprising as we can see on TV programmes of and on. I have seen a real life human with a cat’s tail. This guy use to come to the Bank where I work. He has a black and white tail like a cat’s tail. The tail is as long as his belt. And he use to wrap his tail round his waist and under his shirt. One day the tail accidently came out from his shirt and that was the time I found this strange item was a cat’s tail.
They are so cute. I think the blobfish looks like me.
Eminence, Dharma Prince,
Some days, I feel a lot like the blobfish…. LOL
Love,
–Tom
Dear Rinpoche,
This is really interesting! Never in my life I’ve heard of or even seen such animals. After reading this post, I told myself that I should never ever think that I am oh-so-smart knowing a lot of things.
Because the world is so big and there’s just so many things that I actually don’t know of. I should always have an open mind ready to accept new ideas.
wow how amazing! that dumbo octopus looks like peekachu..thanks for sharing these amazing animals Rinpoche!