With deep oceans and dense forests, mother earth has a lot to offer when it comes to flora and fauna; some of it being extremely unusual and amusing. Read on to know what makes these species a part of the unusual animals category.
Top 5 Unusual Animals:
1. Pangolin
Usually found in Asia and Africa, the Pangolin is the only mammal with hard keratin scales. The scales are not only responsible for making the Pangolin to be enlisted under the Worlds unusual animals list, but also to the list of ‘Worlds most hunted animals’. Here are some interesting facts that make it one of the unusual animals.
They don’t have teeth but have a really long sticky tongue, approximately 40 cm long, which extends from their chest cavity. This unusual animal catches its prey with the help of its extremely long sticky tongue, the insects it preys on are ground up by stones and keratinous spines inside its stomach. However, they have poor eyesight, since their eyes in ratio to their body are small. Therefore, they locate their prey with their strong sense of smell and hearing. ‘Pengguling’, in Malay, the national language of Malaysia, means rolling up. The animal gets its name from ‘penguguling’, since it curls up into a hard ball, when feeling threatened.
Animals such as lions, tigers, and leopards usually prey on them, but when in its defence mode, even these predators find it hard to chew through their keratin scales. In addition, they also lash out their tale, their sharp scales can cut the predators skin. In the defensive state, they also emit a noxious smelling acid, nevertheless, unable to spray this liquid. However, their defence mechanism is what makes it easy for humans to hunt them. Lastly, the age of the pangolin has not yet been established, estimating it to be around 20 years.
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2. The Purple Frog
The Purple Frog is one of the lesser known species, found only very recently in the year 2003, in Idukki district of Kerala, in India. Researches have suggested it to be a ‘once in a century find’. The reason why this unusual frog species has only been discovered recently, is because it stays underground and only comes out for 2-3 weeks in the monsoon season, for mating purposes. This species is also predominantly found in the Western Ghats.
Unlike other frogs, this frog does not leap, but takes long strides, since it has short hind legs. This is one of the many reasons why it makes its way to the being a part of the unusual animals. With a bloated dark purple- greyish body, it has a head which is unusually small in comparison to its body, which is 7 cm long. In addition, it has a pointed snout; due to which it is also known as the pig-nose frog. It uses its sense of smell to hunt soil termites and its hard palms to burrow the soil. Since loose, damp soil is easy to burrow and is well aerated, these unusual species are found near ponds and ditches.
The females also lay their eggs in water bodies. There is only one female for every 10 male frogs. This unusual ancient species has been surviving for the past 120 million years, however, is now close to extinction. A study conducted in 2015, suggests that 1,500 tadpoles are consumed by each tribal household every harvest season. It has also been testified by the tribal community, that their numbers were higher 10-15 years back.
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3. Long Horned Orb—Weaver
What makes this weaver a part of the group of unusual animals is, due to the unusual length of their horns which are approximately 45 mm in length. The humongous horns of the Macracantha arcuate make the insect look like a cool gadget enabled with WIFI services. The purpose of these horns is not yet known, but it’s suggested that they may serve the purpose of intimidating predators.
They are usually found living in India, Borneo, and China and were first found in the 1700’s. However, there isn’t a lot that we know about these unusual creatures. Nevertheless, due to its unique appeal, it has been included in an artist’s guide to drawing mythical creatures.
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4. Okapi
Okapi, pronounced as oh-COP-ee, though makes it to the unusual animals list, it is a beautiful animal. Though in the first instance one may say they resemble zebras, on close inspection, it is noticed that they are more like giraffes. In fact, they are the only animals that belong to the giraffe family. Like the giraffe, the okapi is an extremely attentive animal. They have large upright ears, a long tongue and the hind, as well as front legs, are striped black and white. Females don’t have horns. Males have horns, they are covered by skin and slant backward.
They are usually found in the dense rain forest of central Africa, the Ituri Forest. Since they are extremely alert, they are not easily spotted. This is the reason why they were known by the researchers until the 1900’s and not a lot is known about them. However, here are some known facts about them.
Though they belong to the giraffe family they are not as tall, this is because they belong to the rainforest habitat where the forests are dense with trees very closely placed, making it difficult for animals as tall as the giraffe to move about. Their stripes help them camouflage and its oily fur helps keep themselves dry in the rainy weather.
Another amusing fact about the okapi is that they leave a sticky tar-like substance while walking around; which is secreted by the sweat glands in each of their feet. This animal is usually shy and quiet; females usually vocalize when they are ready to breed. The calls made by them otherwise are also usually of a very low frequency not audible by the human ear.
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5. Gharial
An unusual skinny predator that was once easily spotted, is now an endangered species only found in a few Nepalese and North Indian rivers.
In addition to being one of the worlds most unusual animals, they are also known to be one of the heaviest reptiles on earth. Though their snouts look like a toothy broomstick and have a comical feel to them, they are apt for catching fish. They have 106-110 needle-like teeth that interlock on snapping.
What is interesting is that, the diet of these reptiles changes throughout their lifespan. The young ones usually have broader jaws and therefore dine on frogs and insects, as they grow older, their snouts become slender and they become efficient in preying on fish. The unusual structure of their snout, however, does not enable them to hunt big animals including humans, nevertheless, they do scavenge on a human corpse.
The gharials are reducing in number due to overfishing and poaching. In addition, with the aim to boost the fishing industry, the African tilapia are released into Indian waters, which are responsible for gout that the gharials are suffering from. According to the World Wildlife Federation, a meager 1100 wild gharials currently reside in India, while fewer than 100 holdouts live in Nepal. Their numbers seem to have fallen below 400. However, on the other hand, 2500 hatchlings were counted on the Chambal River in the year 2016.
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This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Unusual Animals all around us. We live in a world where there are approximately 8.7 million species on it and 1-2 million of those species are animals.
Also, read about The Ajanta Caves in our last blog
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