10 Weird Animals You’ve Probably Never Even Heard of

Many of us know that our nature is full of surprises, and it’s an incredible feeling to see weird animals in front of us. The humankind has found only limited animals in nature and still on the way for the research of new animals. Meanwhile, it also becomes hard to be familiar with all the animals on the planet as there are over 1.3 million non-insects animal species on our planet.

So far, humans have only come to know 5% of ocean animals, and there is a huge probability of encountering bizarre species deep down inside the sea. Let’s discuss the top 10 weird animals that you’ve probably heard of. Keep your eyes open.

1. The Salp as a Weird Animal

The first in our list of weird animals, Salp, is an invertebrate ocean species, which is a barrel-shaped with planktic tunicate. This species is found in the ocean, and it moves pumping water from its gelatinous body. Salps are mostly found to be transparent and cylindrically shaped species.

It ejects a jet of fluid and moves on the opposite direction to the jet. They never sting. Although humans don’t eat them, most of the ocean animals love to eat them. Salps are also taken as highly evolved species and have a heart, gills, and spinal cord as well.

2. The Second on the List of Weird Animal, The Panda Ant

The Panda Ant is known as Euspinolia Militaris and is a species of Hymenoptera insects. These species neither look like an ant nor a bee. These are in a form of a wingless wasp and are on the way of extinction.

Moreover, the Panda Ant comes from a Mutillidae family, and there are over 7,000 species of wasps. The species are found n Chile and known for their painful stings. They are called the Panda Ants due to their hair apperance like a panda.

3. The Ili Pika

The Ili Pika comes from the Ochotonidae family and is a species of mammal. The species is found in northwest China and was first discovered in 1983. Due to the effects of climate change, the species in on the way of extinction. There are nearly less than 1,000 Ili Pika left in the world at present.

The animal has a length of 20.3-20.4cm and could weight upto 250g. They are covered with bright color hair with rusty-red spots on their forehead. The species eat grasses, herbs, and other mountain plants for its survival. So, this animal is also considered as one of the weird animals.

4. The Pinocchio Frog

The Pinocchio Frog also goes by the name of the northern Pinocchio treefrog. This species of frog comes from the Pelodryadidae family, which mostly found in the region of Australia and New Guinea. The creature was first discovered in the Foja Mountains in Indonesia.

The quality of this frog is that its nose inflates when it calls a female frog and when the frog is calm and quiet, its nose decreases back to its normal size. It eats insects for its survival.

5. The Snub-nosed Monkey

The Snub-nosed monkeys come from a group of Old World Monkeys and come from Rhinopithecus species. The monkeys are easy to find Asian regions, especially in Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou.

These species have a round face with a short stump of a nose and nostrils on the forward. They have long fur in comparison to other monkey species. Their size could grow to a length of 51cm to 83cm. According to the research from the late 1980s, there are believed to be only 200 Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys left in the world.

6. The Handfish

The Handfish comes from the Brachionichthyidae family and is divided into five genera with 14 extant species. These species could be found in deep down the ocean and better known for walking on the seafloor rather than swimming.

We can easily find the handfish in southern Australia and Tasmania. It can grow upto 15cm where its skin is covered with denticles. The handfish moves very slow in the seafloor and have pectoral fins looking like hands. These species are like anglerfish and also possess an illicium.

7. Honduran White Bat

Also famous as the Caribbean white tent-making bat, Honduran white bat is species of bat and comes from the Phyllostomatidae family. Well, the genus was first described scientifically in 1892. The Honduran white bat is fully covered with white fur and is distinctive in appearance.

Moreover, you can encounter this species in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama upto 23,00 ft from the sea level. Honduran white bat prefers to live in a roost, which is a place for birds and bats to sleep and rest safely. Besides, they can grow upto 1.5 inches in length.

8. Weird Animal: The Grimpoteuthis (Dumbo Octopus)

Grimpoteuthis is also famous as Dumbo Octopus. The species comes from a genus of pelagic umbrella octopuses. It has an ear-like fin and could find at the depths of 3,000-4,000m below the sea. The species have captured the oceans of New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and others.

Well, the life span of this species is between three to five years. Talking about its body, it could weight nearly 6Kg and could be 20-30 cm in length. It can swim high upto the sea to search for food like polychaete worms, pelagic copepods, isopods, and amphipods.

9. Chinese Softshell Turtle

The species of softshell turtle, Chinese Softshell Turtle, are defined as a vulnerable species. The male species are shorter in length than the female turtles. On the contrary, male softshell turtles have longer tails than female turtles.

Similarly, you can find the species in more parts of China, i.e., Anhui, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hong Kong, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, etc. They live in freshwaters like lakes, ponds, canals, and creeks. They have a life span of four to six years.

10. The Cherax Pulcher

If you have seen the crayfish, then you would not get surprised to see this Cherax Pulcher. It is a species of crayfish from West Papua. The Latin word ‘Pulcher’ means beautiful. People prefer this species to put into their freshwater aquarium and is available across Asia, Europe, and North America.

Talking about its size, Cherax Pulcher measures 75-98 mm in length. They have an oval shape of the body where their body color varies to bright, pink, grey, blue, or black. Some of its famous names are Hoa Creek, Blue Moon, or Irian Jaya.