Creepy Animals

The Gila monster is the largest extant lizard species that live in North America. It is a heavy, typically slow-moving creature and is the only venomous lizard native to the United States. The Gila monster is sluggish in nature, so not generally dangerous and very rarely a real threat to humans. Yet, its exaggeratedly fearsome reputation has led to it sometimes being killed, in spite of being protected by state law in Arizona. The name "Gila" ...
refers to the Gila River Basin in the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico, where the Gila monster was once plentiful. This lizard spends most of its lifetime hidden underground in burrows or rocky shelters. It feeds whenever it comes across suitable prey. The Gila monster uses its extremely acute sense of smell to locate prey. It may crush the prey to death if large, or eat it alive. Despite its massive appearance, the Gila monster is able to climb trees, cacti, and even up fairly straight, rough-surfaced walls. Less

The shoebill is a very large stork-like bird that derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill. This bird has the third-longest bill among extant birds after pelicans and large storks and can outrival the pelicans in bill circumference, especially if the bill is considered as the hard, bony keratin portion. When they are first born, shoebills have a more modestly-sized bill, which is initially silvery-grey. The bill becomes more ...
noticeably large when the chicks are 23 days old and become well developed by 43 days. Less

The Bald uakari is a small monkey known for its bright, crimson face and bald head. Its scarlet red face is due to the lack of skin pigments and plentiful capillaries that run under its facial tissue. The bright red facial skin is also a sign of good health and allows for the determination of a healthy mate. During the rainy season, Bald uakaris prefer to stay in the treetops because of the flooding of the forests but during the dry season, they ...
return to the ground to look for seeds and other food material. Their powerful lower jaw allows uakaris to open the hard surfaces of unripe fruits and eat the nuts that most other primates would not be able to open. Less

Naked mole-rats are widespread and numerous in the drier regions of East Africa. They are well adapted to their underground existence. Their eyes are quite small, and their visual acuity is poor. Their legs are thin and short; however, they are highly adept at moving underground and can move backward as fast as they can move forward. Their large, protruding teeth are used to dig and their lips are sealed just behind the teeth, preventing soil ...
from filling their mouths while digging. About a quarter of their musculature is used in the closing of their jaws while they dig. Naked mole-rats have little hair (hence the common name) and wrinkled pink or yellowish skin. They lack pain sensitivity in their skin and have very low metabolic and respiratory rates. Less

The Marabou stork is a large wading bird that lives in both wet and arid habitats, often near human habitation. It is sometimes called the "undertaker bird" due to its shape from behind: cloak-like wings and back, skinny white legs, and sometimes a large white mass of "hair". The Marabou is unmistakable due to its size, bare head, and neck. It has a huge bill, and a pink gular sac at its throat which is called 'crumenifer(us)' meaning 'carrier ...
of a pouch for money'. This powerful bird is a frequent scavenger, and the naked head and long neck are adaptations to this livelihood, as it is with the vultures with which the stork often feeds. Though known to eat putrid and seemingly inedible foods, the Marabou may sometimes wash food in water to remove soil and performs an important natural function by cleaning areas via its ingestion of carrion and waste. Less

Satanic leaf-tailed geckos are found only on the island of Madagascar and nowhere else. These little creatures live in trees and rely on their natural camouflage; some individuals even have notches in their tails to further mimic a decaying leaf. In addition, these geckos have an eyelash-like projection above each eye. During daylight hours, these adaptations help geckos blend into their surroundings; at night it helps them hunt for prey by ...
providing camouflage. Leaf-tailed geckos are experts at avoiding predators, not only through their incredible mimicry but through a number of behaviors. They can flatten their body against the substrate to reduce the body's shadow, open their jaws wide to show a frightening, bright red mouth, and voluntarily shed their tail in order to trick a predator. Less

The Black mamba is the second-longest venomous snake after the King cobra. Skittish and often unpredictable, Black mambas are agile and can move quickly. In the wild, they seldom tolerate humans approaching more closely than about 40 meters (130 ft). In a threat display, these snakes usually open their inky-black mouth, spread their narrow neck-flap, and sometimes hiss. They are capable of striking at considerable range and may deliver a series ...
of bites in rapid succession. Their venom is frequently fatal unless antivenom is administered. Despite their reputation as a formidable and highly aggressive species, Black mambas attack humans only if they are threatened or cornered. Less

The Harpy eagle is a large and very powerful raptor. It is among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. Harpies have the largest talons of any living eagle and can lift prey up to equal their own body weight. This allows them to snatch even a live sloth from tree branches. Most commonly, Harpy eagles use perch-hunting, in which they scan for prey activity while briefly perched between short flights from tree to tree. Upon spotting ...
prey, they dive and grab it. Sometimes, Harpies are "sit-and-wait" predators and on occasion, they may also hunt by flying within or above the canopy. Less

Komodo dragons were first recorded by Western scientists in 1910. Their large size and fearsome reputation make them popular zoo exhibits. In the wild, their range has contracted due to human activities and is likely to contract further from the effects of climate change. The Komodo dragon is also sometimes known as the Komodo monitor or the Komodo Island monitor in scientific literature. To the natives of Komodo Island, this monster is referred ...
to as ora, buaya darat ('land crocodile'), or biawak raksasa ('giant monitor'). Less

The Star-nosed mole is the only member of the tribe having a touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer's organs; these receptors help this hamster-sized mole feel its way around. Star-nosed moles are also able to smell underwater, accomplished by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry scents back through the nose. The speed of the bubbles is compared to other ...
mole's speed of sniffing. Scientists found that the bubbles are being blown towards targets such as food. Before the Star-nosed mole, scientists did not believe that mammals could smell underwater, let alone smell by blowing bubbles. Less