The Wildlife Encyclopedia
Explore all 545 species indexed across the encyclopedia. Every creature is paired with anatomical superpower breakdowns and musical subcultures.
Wels Catfish
Europe's largest freshwater fish, and on one French river, a hunter that beaches itself to grab pigeons off a gravel island.
West Indian Manatee
A gentle sea cow whose dense bones may help keep it neutrally buoyant, and whose weak low-frequency hearing may be part of why boats keep hitting it.
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
A desert pit viper with a heat-sensing pit on each side of its head. In one study, fasting snakes lost 30% of their body mass over 168 days.
Western Grebe
Tied with Clark's grebe as the largest animal known to run on water, sprinting across a lake in a courtship display called rushing.
Western Honeybee
A forager who dances flower coordinates with her whole body, and dies giving her sting.
Whale Shark
World's largest fish, an ocean giant armored in tooth-like scales down to its eyeballs, that filters its food out of seawater.
White Rhinoceros
1,800 to 2,700 kilograms of armored grey hide and a keratin horn, carrying a name nobody has ever actually proven right.
White-Nosed Coati
A long-nosed forager that sniffs scorpions and spiders out of the forest floor.
White-Spotted Pufferfish
A 12-centimeter pufferfish that spends 7 to 9 days digging a sand circle about 2 meters wide to impress a date.
White-Tailed Deer
A fawn holds in its waste until its mother returns, and she swallows whatever it passes so predators find no sign of it.
Wild Boar
A long-snouted omnivore whose upper canines are usually visible even when its mouth is closed.
Wild Turkey
Gobbles heard up to a mile away, flight at up to 54 mph
Wolverine
Scavenger of the far north whose jaw-joint bone was the stiffest and most crush-resistant of 40 carnivores tested in a 2018 study.
Wood Frog
A frog that can let ice fill over a third of its body each winter, stop its own heart, and thaw out alive again each spring.
Yellow Fever Mosquito
A mosquito about a quarter of an inch long whose yellow fever cost U.S. troops more casualties than enemy fire in the Spanish-American War.
Yellow-Footed Rock-Wallaby
Ring-tailed outback acrobat that leaps up to four metres from rock to rock on short-clawed, thickly padded hind feet.
Yellowfin Tuna
A warm-muscled torpedo that can swim across an entire ocean.