The Strategic Energy Framework publication provides specific Forest Service goals and charts a course to achieve these goals. This framework helps the Forest Service become more energy efficient, demonstrates effective sustainable management, and sets standards of energy practices for Americans to follow.
Research at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis. helps further USDA goals and provides advanced alternatives to many products, services, and energy sources in use today. Strategic research areas include: advanced composites, advanced structures, forest biorefinery, nanotechnology, and woody biomass.
Naked mole rat has the lengthiest lifespan among all rodents in the world. They have wrinkly skin that's either pink or grayish-pink. They also have short, broad heads, giant incisors, and strong jaw muscles. A naked mole rat can weigh between 1 to 1.5 ounces and have a length of 3 inches.
You'll find this hairless animal in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and other countries in Eastern Africa. A naked mole rat can barely see because it has tiny eyes. Also, it can not regulate its body temperature. It maintains its body temperature by huddling with other rats in the colony.
Although naked mole rats look hairless, they are not. They have sensory whiskers on their tail and faces. The rats also have hairy toes, which help them sweep away soil from their digging activities. Another attribute of the weird animals is their social structure. Naked mole rats have an eusocial system that's unusual for mammals.
They live in large colonies, with only one female rat performing the breeding while other rats form the workforce. They refer to the breeding female as the queen.
Next on our list of weirdest animals is the pink fairy armadillo. The pink fairy armadillo is the smallest species of armadillo. You can only find them in central Argentina. They have a carapace like the other armadillo species. However, it is softer, thinner, and more flexible. The pink armadillo has a pink shell because all its blood vessels are close to its surface.
It grows up to 6 inches long. Pink Armadillos can also control their temperature by pumping blood to their thin shells. This action removes the heat from their bodies and replaces it with coolness. Observing pink fairy armadillos in the wild is difficult because they usually hide themselves. You might only see glimpses of them if heavy rainfall evicts them from their earthly homes.
Axolotl is an amphibian that lives in Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco, near Mexico City. It is Mexico's national animal. It is a type of salamander that doesn't experience metamorphosis. They look like juveniles for the rest of their lives. How do they reproduce if they are forever young?
At some point, the only adult attribute they develop is the ability to breed. What makes the Mexican walking fish unique is its ability to heal itself2. It can regenerate body parts like the limbs, eyes, and some parts of the brain. Unfortunately, they are critically endangered because of human activities.
The size of the Japanese spider crab makes it a weird animal. It is the largest living crab in the world. The carapace of the Japanese spider crab is 12 inches wide, but its legs can grow up to 13 feet long. It has an average weight of 20 kg and can live up to 100 years old.
The legs keep growing even when the crab reaches adulthood. They have ten long legs, eight walking legs, and two chelipids. Chelipeds are crab legs with claws. In the male crab, chelipeds are longer than its walking legs, while the female crab’s are shorter than its walking legs.
You can find these crabs on Japan’s Pacific Coast. They prefer sandy and rocky continental slopes. Japanese spider crabs are scavengers of the ocean. They spend most of their time scavenging for decaying fish, invertebrates, and algae on the ocean floor. Also, they are not swimmers. They walk on the ocean floor slowly.
Next on our list of weirdest animals is the star-nosed mole. It is closely related to the hairy-tailed and eastern mole. The star-nosed mole is a small mammal with tiny eyes and a leaf-shaped nose. They live in almost complete darkness because they can’t see with little eyes.
The star-nosed mole's uniqueness is in its name. Its nose has 22 finger-like or star-shaped tentacles. They surround its nostrils side-by-side. Each little extension measures between 0.2 and 0.5 inches. Under the microscope, scientists noticed the tentacles have 25,000 papillae coverings.
The papillae coverings are sensory receptors referred to as Eimer’s organs. The receptors are the mole’s seeing eyes. They help it detect details about its surrounding environment. Scientists also discovered that the star shape of the nose mirrors the structure of its brain.
The mole’s nose touches something up to 10 times per second to send a detailed imprint of its surrounding area to its brain. The star-nosed mole also has the unique ability to smell underwater. It catches its prey by rapidly creating bubbles with its breath to trace the faint scent molecules in water.
There are lots of strange animals in the ocean. One of them is the mantis shrimp, an impressive ocean predator. There are up to 400 species of the mantis shrimp. They have distinctive red, green, and blue colors, making them exceptionally beautiful. However, you can categorize the shrimps into two species.
These groups are smashers and spearers3. Smashers have a claw shaped like a club, which they use to smash their prey, while spearers have a claw lined with plenty of sharp teeth. They incapacitate their prey by impaling them with these teeth.
Mantis shrimps have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Their compound eyes have trinocular vision, giving them more depth perception than humans. Mantis shrimps can see a variety of light spectra, including those in the ultraviolet spectrum. They also have one of the most powerful blows in the animal kingdom. They attack their prey at 50 miles per hour, faster than a 0.22 caliber bullet.
The giant Chinese salamander is a critically endangered salamander species. It is the world’s largest amphibian. Chinese salamanders have an average length of 1 meter and weigh 11 kg. Their bodies are heavily built and flat, with short but sturdy limbs.
They can live for up to 60 years. The conservation status of giant Chinese salamanders is critically endangered. Researchers could only find 24 giant Chinese salamanders in the wild. Excessive hunting by humans caused an alarming decline in their population.
Another animal on our list of weirdest animals worldwide is the pink river dolphin. Originally born as a gray calf, the river dolphin turns pink as it reaches adulthood. Male river dolphins are usually more pink than their female counterparts. Researchers believe the males have more pink hue because they are aggressive towards themselves.
Unlike other dolphins, the pink river dolphin can turn its head from side to side because of its separated spines. A river dolphin can grow as long as 8.5 ft. Also, it can move one of its flippers independently of the other. It improves the speed of their movement in water.
River dolphins have sensory hair on their snouts. It helps them locate prey in the deep sea. They also have two different types of teeth for various functions. The dolphin's front teeth are pointy and used to catch and hold their prey, while the back teeth are flatter. They use their back teeth to grind their food before swallowing.
Their unique teeth formation allows them to feed on over 50 types of fish, freshwater crabs, and turtles. You can find the pink river dolphin in South America, specifically in the Amazon and Orinoco river systems.
