The Wildlife Encyclopedia
Explore all 545 species indexed across the encyclopedia. Every creature is paired with anatomical superpower breakdowns and musical subcultures.
Tawny Owl
Broad rounded wings, lopsided ears, and a 'too-whit-too-woo' that takes two birds to make.
Texas Horned Lizard
The armored desert lizard that turns its own eyes into blood-squirting weapons against predators.
Thorny Devil
Capillary skin channels that pull water from a puddle to its mouth, a spiny false head decoy, and big spines with no bone inside them.
Thorny Seahorse
A seahorse with extremely sharp spines, a crown on its head and fathers that carry the babies.
Three-Toed Sloth
A slow-metabolism canopy dweller whose fur hosts its own community of moths and algae.
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
One oversized claw fires a high-speed water jet whose collapsing bubble, in a related shrimp, hits at least 5,000 kelvin and flashes with light.
Tiger Shark
A shark with a reputation for eating almost anything, serrated teeth that can pierce sea turtle shells, and a habit of hunting at night.
Timber Rattlesnake
The big eastern pit viper that senses heat, waits in ambush and rattles a warning first.
Toco Toucan
A blood-vessel-packed bill that doubles as a radiator, and a throat that takes fruit without the tongue ever touching it.
Tsetse Fly
A blood-drinking fly that makes milk and gives birth to a larva nearly as big as she is.
Tuatara
The sole survivor of an ancient reptile order: a nocturnal New Zealand islander with a light-sensitive third eye it does not see with, and a sliding jaw that makes a shearing bite.
Tufted Capuchin
A stocky Amazon monkey that smashes fruit its jaws cannot crack, or opens it with a piece of branch.
Turkey Vulture
A scavenger with a real nose, and a habit of riding warm air.
Vampire Squid
Oxygen-poor twilight-zone living, pulsing blue arm tips, and an inside-out pineapple posture.
Vaquita
A shy porpoise with the smallest range of any whale, dolphin or porpoise
Veiled Chameleon
A tongue that can shoot to full length in 26 milliseconds, eyes that look two ways at once, and a casque that collects water.
Virginia Opossum
Fifty-toothed marsupial that fakes its own death through an involuntary catatonic collapse and is virtually immune to pit viper venom.
Vogelkop Bowerbird
A generally brown bird that builds what biologists call the most elaborately decorated structure erected by an animal other than humans, in a style that changes from range to range.
Volta Electric Eel
The biological super-battery that hit 860 volts, the strongest electric discharge known from any living animal.
Walrus
Tusks up to three feet long, hundreds of sensitive whiskers, and the bulk of the third-largest pinniped.
Wandering Albatross
Perhaps the longest wingspan of any bird, and in a year off from breeding some circle Antarctica twice or even three times.
Water Buffalo
A farm giant that can reach 1,000 kg and wallows in mud to cool off.
Water Flea
A mostly see-through pond crustacean whose 200-megabase genome holds at least 30,907 genes.
Weddell Seal
The most southerly-ranging mammal living permanently in Antarctica, rasping breathing holes through new sea ice with its teeth and diving as deep as 720 metres.