Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take

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Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take

By Trista - July 13, 2022

The Gharial

The gharial looks as if Mother Nature was playing a prank on a crocodile. Unfortunately, because of their unique appearance, they have become critically endangered. Scientists made gharial after the “ghara” which is an Indian pot, and this is due to the bulbous protrusion at the tip of a male gharial’s snout. These cool animals are the only crocodile species with a noticeable difference between males and females. Their long snouts help them catch fish, but very little of their food supply is in the rivers because of overfishing. Conservation efforts have been put in place to help these gharials to thrive.

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The Polka-Dotted Zebra

Everyone is used to seeing zebras with stripes, so you can imagine how everyone’s jaws dropped when they came upon the first polka-dotted zebra. Born in Kenya, this isn’t a new species of zebra. Instead, it simply has a pigment disorder where the skin and short hair have more black than white. Many scientists believe that this disorder could result from inbreeding within zebra herds due to their decreased range as a result of hunting, ranches, and habitat loss. Unfortunately for this foal, it’s likely to die young, given that its pattern doesn’t help it blend in well with the rest of the herd, making it easy for predators to pick it out.

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The Peacock Mantis Shrimp

As beautiful as the peacock mantis shrimp is, it’s not an aquatic animal that you should really mess with. Despite how small this shrimp is, you’re better off keeping your distance. And that’s because these cool animals know how to pack a punch. How powerful are they? Their punches are capable of ripping open the hard shells of mollusks and crabs, and it’s one of the fastest movements to take place underwater, not to mention in the entire animal kingdom. Furthermore, their punches can even kill other shrimp if they feel threatened, winding back with their powerful forearms and smacking the ever-living crap out of anything nearby.

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The Markhor

Markhor live in flocks that usually consist of females and kids; the males are solitary and only come around during the breeding season. The markhor has many predators, so they always live on very high alert in order to avoid getting eaten. That is why they have such a strong sense of smell to know when they need to get away. However, what’s most remarkable about these animals is their folklore. Scientists think they eat serpents and that a foam-like substance falls out of their mouth when they do so. The local people collect this foam, thinking that it helps treat snakebites.

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The Axolotl

A few years ago, the axolotl became a craze when everyone wanted to own one as a pet or wanted merchandise sporting these water dogs, so-called in the native Nahuatl language. They have several characteristics that make them unique in the animal kingdom. First of all, axolotls are actually amphibians but never actually go through metamorphosis. Secondly, they’re able to regenerate limbs that they’ve lost completely. They can completely regrow an entire leg in just a few months, complete with nerves and muscle tissues, making the regrown limb completely functional. They can even regenerate tissues of the eyes and heart, as well as less vital parts of their brains.

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The Blue Glaucus

Sea slugs, despite their name, are actually quite pretty. They come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, as demonstrated by the blue glaucus. It has a beautiful blue hue to its body and appendages that makes it a marvel to look at. It has also been called the blue dragon or blue angel. In its natural habitat, the blue glaucus blends in easily with the ocean water as well as the sky so that they won’t get eaten. However, the blue glaucus is also known for ingesting venomous prey and using those toxins to protect themselves from predators.

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The Star-Nosed Mole

For the average homeowner, moles are complete headaches. These pests can make a lawn very lumpy. The star-nosed mole is one of them, but they look much different from the average mole. They are excellent diggers and can even swim underwater for up to 30 seconds. What is the reason for the shape of its nose? These cool animals have very poor eyesight, which is typical for all moles. They use their nose projections to sense prey, such as bugs, that they can eat. They can touch up to 12 different things at once in a single second. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this also makes the star-nosed mole one of the fastest hunters in the world.

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The Spike-Nosed Tree Frog

Also called the long-nosed tree frog, the spike-nosed tree frog has a funny projection on the end of its nose. Only the males of the species have this distinctive trait. Experts also refer to this cool animal as the Pinocchio frog for apparent reasons. The protuberance points upward when the male calls and deflates when the male is resting. However, the size of this spike plays no role when females choose males to mate with. Scientists believe that this spike only helps the frogs differentiate themselves from other species of frogs that live in the forests.

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The Hammerhead Shark

Many people are familiar with how bizarre the hammerhead shark appears. With eyes on either side of their wide head, it’s a wonder that they can even see anything at all. However, sharks don’t need to see very well to catch their prey, and that’s what their broad heads are for. They have a sensory organ on their heads called a cephalofoil that senses the electrical fields created by any prey or threats from several miles away. Because their eyes are so far apart, they can rotate their eyes to the point that they actually have 360-degree vision.

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The Chinese Water Deer

The Chinese water deer is one of the only deer species that doesn’t grow antlers. Instead, they produce large fangs protruding out of their mouths, like vampire fangs. Both males and females have fangs, but the girls have much smaller ones. These large teeth are nothing to worry about since the Chinese water deer is still an herbivore. They only use their tusks to fight off other males during the mating season before claiming females, and they use them to fend off predators in any way they can.

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The Lykoi

People think werewolves are creatures of fiction, but there is a real cat species that looks like it could be related to the werewolf. This species of cat is called the lykoi and is a natural mutation found in the domestic shorthair cat. This gene mutation causes Lykoi cats to have short hair or be completely hairless. Despite their somewhat feral appearance because of their fur, they’re actually quite affectionate towards their owners and are very unchallenging in their behavior. They tend to shed a lot as they grow older, but the hair grows back later in their lives.

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Heterochromia Iridum

Heterochromia iridum is the technical name for any animal with eyes of different colors. One of the most prominent examples of this unique animal is a husky with one brown and one blue eye. It doesn’t happen very often, but scientists have agreed that the reason for heterochromia is the lack of genetic diversity. Having heterochromia iridum doesn’t affect a person or animal’s vision at all since it only affects the pigments in the iris and not the functional structure of the eye itself. In some cases, this condition could result from injury or disease later on in life.

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The Barn Owl

Barn owls, and all owls, are capable of doing strange things with their bodies. Because their orbital sockets are very shallow in their skulls, it means that their eyeballs can’t move. They can blink, but they cannot move up and down or side to side. That means that they compensate for this by moving their heads. Moreover, they can move their heads an impressive 270 degrees. That means that they can see almost everything around them just with a turn of their head. And they can even turn their heads upside down!

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