Marine ecologist Kerryn Parkinson found the next animal on our list of weirdest animals in 2003. The blobfish is a deep-sea animal occupying the southeastern coast of mainland Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand waters. Blobfish won the ugliest animal online vote in 2013.
The gelatinous fish has different anatomical functions from other fish species. It lacks skeletons or muscles. The fish’s body comprises a blobby substance with a lower density than water. It helps them stay flat above the sea floor. Half its body mass contains its head, large black eyes, a huge mouth, and a bulbous nose.
Also, blobfish don’t have a swim bladder. It works to its benefit because it allows it to control buoyancy. It lives at sea depths ranging from 2000 to 3900 ft. The ocean at this depth has pressure 60 to 120 times greater than the sea surface. The lack of swim bladders prevents implosion at these depths.
With its single closed circulatory system, it can grow up to one foot long. They have a slow reproduction rate and live up to 100 years.
Next on the list of weird animals is the red-lipped batfish. The red-lipped batfish has a lipstick-red pout and frog-like legs. You can only find it on the Galapagos islands. It prefers the sandy bottom of reefs or the ocean. You’ll find the fish species at depths of 3 to 76 meters in the Pacific oceans or around the edges of reefs 120 meters deep at Galapagos islands.
It is a terrible swimmer and often uses its fins as legs to walk around the sandy bottoms of the ocean. Apart from the bright red color of its lips, the blobfish’s body color is light brown, with a gray back and white stomach.
It also has an appendage known as illicium on its head. Researchers think it uses it to lure prey in. It feeds on small fish, shrimp, and mollusks. Luckily, their conservation status is not threatened.
The next creature on our list of weird animals is Aye-aye. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate native to Madagascar islands. The primate spends its days sleeping and its nights searching for food.
One of its many weird features is its long, narrow middle finger. It uses it to tap on tree branches to get the grubs and insects under the tree branches. Aye-aye uses the percussive foraging method to search for food.
It has rodent-like teeth for tearing at grubs and insects and bat-like ears it uses to pick up echoes in trees. Unfortunately, aye-aye is an endangered species.
The sea pig is a weird animal that looks very different from its name. It is not a pig that lives underwater. It is a sea cucumber. Sea cucumbers live in the bottom of the oceans. They have unique transparent bodies.
You can’t observe sea pigs outside their natural habitat because they disintegrate into a pile of faux Jell-O once they reach 4,000 feet of the water’s surface. They also break apart easily when caught in a fishing trawler.
Their poisonous skin protects them from predators. Sea pigs also have unique respiratory systems. They breathe through their anuses. We don’t know a lot about their conservation status because it is hard to study them outside their native habitat.
The bat-eared fox is one of the weird animals native to Eastern and Southern Africa. It is a small animal with ears that are over 5 inches long. Its body is sandy gray, with darker fur around the back of its ears, eyes, muzzle, feet, and the tip of its long, hairy tail.
The carnivorous mammal can live up to 14 years. According to the conservation status on the IUCN list, there’s no threat of extinction. It relies on its fast speed to escape from predators.
The capybara is an adorable animal native to South America1. They are semi-aquatic animals found in habitats with easy access to water. Capybaras are the largest rodents in the world. It weighs between 35 kg and 65 kg and weighs about 1.2 meters.
They have reddish brown coarse fur, but it turns yellowish brown on the belly. Their hind legs are longer than the front legs, and they have partially webbed feet. Capybaras feed on aquatic soft plant parts, grasses, bark, and fruit.
The helmeted hornbill is one of the weirdest animals common in Southeast Asia. The bird has black wings with white tips, a black back, a white belly, and white legs. Its most bizarre feature, wrinkled throat patch, is creamy white in females and deep scarlet in males.
It has a casque on its upper jaw. It is different from other hornbill species. Its casque is harder and heavier and used for combat. It uses its helmet to fight for territory and foraging. Helmeted hornbills fight by ramming their casques together like a big-horned ram. The winner accesses rare nesting cavities and figs from their favorite trees.
Jabiru is a large stock bird native to Central and South America. It is also the tallest flying bird in Central and South America. They fly over water bodies, catching any small animal they can.
They scavenge whenever they can. Their scavenging activities help keep water bodies clean by removing dead fish and carrion from the water's surface. Jabiru is a South American Tupi-Guarani language that translates to swollen neck, referring to their bulging necks.
The skin on their neck is deep pink when inactive, but it charges to a deep scarlet color when irritated. Jabiru has the largest wingspan of any bird around the world. Their wingspan is up to 2.6 meters, and they weigh up to 8 kg.
Markhor is a large wild goat with broad hooves and distinctive spiral horns. It is the largest goat among other goat species, and its horns are its unique features. The horns can grow up to 5 feet long in males.
Female markhor weighs between 70 and 88 pounds, while male counterparts weigh between 170 and 242 pounds. You will find them in the Himalayan Mountain Range. Unfortunately, exotic wildlife is under threat of extinction because of habitat loss and human hunting.
The eastern long-necked turtle is native to swamps, lakes, and inland waterways in Eastern Australia. It is a carnivorous aquatic animal that feeds on small fishes, tadpoles, and invertebrates.
The unusual animal has a long neck up to the length of its shell. It also has webbed feet for digging and swimming. The long-necked turtle releases acrid liquid from its armpit and groin whenever it feels threatened.
