The Wildlife Encyclopedia
Explore all 545 species indexed across the encyclopedia. Every creature is paired with anatomical superpower breakdowns and musical subcultures.
Red-Tailed Hawk
The copper-tailed hawk whose cry voices bald eagles in TV ads.
Reindeer (Caribou)
Eyes that shine deep blue in the Arctic winter, feet that click when it walks, and the only deer where cows grow antlers too.
Resplendent Quetzal
A cloud forest trogon revered by pre-Columbian cultures, whose males grow iridescent tail plumes up to 90 centimeters long.
Reticulated Python
The longest python, up to 33 feet of snake with black X's running down its back in a diamond-like pattern.
Ring-Tailed Lemur
Black-and-white ringed tail, yoga-pose sun worship, and wrist gland scent wars.
Ringed Caecilian
A legless burrower about 40 cm long whose newborns eat their mother's skin and drink milk from her vent.
Rock Dove
A cliff bird turned city bird, fed on "pigeon milk" as a chick, and in its trained homing form able to find its way back to the loft from far away.
Rock Hyrax
A stub-tailed, rabbit-like rock climber with singing males, whose closest living relatives are elephants and manatees.
Roseate Spoonbill
The pink wader that hunts by touch, swinging a slightly open spoon-shaped bill through the shallows and snapping it shut when it contacts prey.
Ross Seal
The least-studied of Antarctica's ice-breeding seals, a loner with enormous eyes that often dives past 300 metres.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
A metabolic dynamo that can beat its wings more than 50 times a second and cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single non-stop flight.
Russell's Viper
A South Asian viper whose venom varies across India, enough that one antivenom did poorly against snakes from the semi-arid north in mouse tests.
Sacred Scarab
A very large dung roller that shapes droppings into balls and holds heat in its thorax in flight.
Saiga Antelope
An inflatable nose, loud nasal roars, and an Ice Age survivor of the Eurasian steppe.
Saltwater Crocodile
Up to 23-foot apex archosaur, and the species behind the highest bite force measured in any animal: 3,689 pounds.
Sandfish Sea Cucumber
A sediment-swallowing sea cucumber that is one of the highest-valued species in the bêche-de-mer trade.
Sandhill Crane
A red-capped crane that duets with its mate and sleeps standing in the shallows.
Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Dead-leaf camouflage down to the fake decay and missing pieces, horn-like brow scales, and a loud, red-mouthed bluff when confronted.
Satin Bowerbird
Stick-avenue builder, blue-object collector, and a courtship act of buzzes, rattles and mimicry.
Scalloped Hammerhead
A wide head that seems to sense prey no better than a sandbar shark's, but searches a wider area and can pivot into sharp turns at high speed.
Scaly-foot Snail
The hydrothermal vent gastropod whose foot scales and shell are often mineralised with iron sulfide, with a heart that takes up about 4% of its body volume.
Scarlet Macaw
A big scarlet parrot that feeds mostly in the forest canopy, with a beak that can break open the toughest nuts.
Sea Lamprey
A jawless survivor from a lineage that split from ours roughly 500 million years ago, armed with a sucker mouth ringed in rasping teeth.
Sea Otter
The densest fur of any mammal, a rock tucked under one arm, and a keystone predator that stops urchins from overgrazing kelp forests.