Flying Fox

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Suborder: Megachiroptera
Family: Pteropodidae
Genus: Pteropus

Photo Credit: Markus Nolf

The Flying Fox is a megabat and often called a fruit bat because its diet consists of eating fruit or sucking the nectar from flowers or juice from fruit. This bat does have teeth that are used to bite through fruit skins, and it has a long tongue that is inserted into flowers to reach the nectar.

Despite the appearance of these large bats and their reputation in horror movies as blood-sucking vampires, the Flying Fox is in fact frugivorous and is not dangerous to humans.

Like most bats, the Flying Fox is social and nocturnal. They roost together at a camp during the day and feed at night.

Photo Credit: Daniel Vianna

The Flying Fox is typically around 16 inches long with a wingspan of up to 5 feet. These giants can also weigh 2+ pounds each. The name Flying Fox comes from the bat's head resemblence to a fox, with small ears, pointed nose and large eyes. They live in the tropics of Asia and Australia and on islands in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Whale Shark

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Orectolobiformes
Family: Rhincodontidae
Genus: Rhincodon
Species: R. typus

Photo Credit: Zac Wolf

Not your typical shark, the Whale Shark poses little to no danger to humans despite their enormous size. Whale Sharks grow upwards of 40 feet long and weigh in excess of 50,000 lbs, making this the largest living fish species.

The Whale Shark is mostly bluish-grey with a white belly and pale yellow stripes and spots that run along the width of its whole body. This color pattern helps the Whale Shark with camouflage. These yellow stripes and spots are quite unique from shark to shark and are therefore used to identify specific sharks by researchers and scientists.

Sexual maturity is throught to be around 30 years old and Whale Sharks are believed to live approximately 100 years.

Photo Credit: Werner Mischler

Incredibly, the Whale Shark diet consists of plankton, algae and small nekton such as krill and squid. During feeding, the Whale Shark sucks in a mouthful of water and food, closes its mouth, then expels the water through its gills, leaving its prey trapped inside where it is then swallowed. It does have several rows of teeth similar to other shark species, but because the whale shark is a filter feeder, the teeth do not play any role in feeding and are comparatively much smaller to other sharks. This method of feeding and its large body size is also what gives the Whale Shark its name.

Not much is known about the reproductive habits of Whale Sharks, but it is believed that whale sharks give birth to live young based on a 1996 capture of a pregnant Whale Shark carrying 300 embryos.

Tamandua

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Suborder: Vermilingua
Family: Myrmecophagidae
Genus: Tamandua

The Tamandua is found throughout the Central and South Americas. It lives in both the forests and the grasslands. Its tail is partially prehensile, meaning it can be used to grasp objects. This makes it easier for the Tamandua to climb through and balance in the tree canopy.

It grows to be about 10-13 lbs (4-6 kg) and has a strong set of foreclaws that helps it open up wood and nests of ants and termites which is what the Tamandua's diet consists of. Its tongue is long and saliva-covered and has microscopic backward-pointing projections that help pick the ants and termites out of the nest. Since the Tamandua has no teeth, it must rely on its powerful gizzard to break down food.

A Tamandua has one single young at a time which stays with the female until nearly half her size. When she moves from place to place, the young ride on her back and cling tightly to her fur.

Platypus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Monotremata
Family: Ornithorhynchidae
Genus: Ornithorhynchus
Species: O. anatinus

Mainly found in the eastern part of Australia, including Tasmania, when first discovered in 1798, the Platypus was originally considered an elaborate hoax due its strange physical appearance that combines a duck-tail, beaver-tail and otter-like feet on one animal.

The Platypus is also one of the only mammals today that still lay eggs as a form of reproduction. Strangely enough, the female Platypus does have two ovaries, but only the left ovary is functional and she usually lays one to three eggs at a time.

Newly hatched young are born hairless and blind. The female Platypus does have mammary glands, but does not have teats. Milk is instead released through pores in the skin and forms pools in grooves that are found on her abdomen where her young are able to lap it up.

The male Platypus has a spur on each ankle of the hind legs. This spur delivers a powerful poison and while not lethal to humans, it is capable of killing small animals. This ability to produce venom again highlights the uniqueness of the platypus since only a handful of mammals are venomous.

Since only males possess the spur and produce venom, and its production increases during the breeding season, it is theorized that the venomous spur is used as an offensive weapon to assert dominance during the breeding period.

Dumbo Octopus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cepalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Family: Opisthoteuthidae
Genus: Grimpoteuthis

Found in every ocean, this octopus is known as a Dumbo Octopus because of its large ear-like fins that are attached to its body. While in motion, the combination of "ears" on a large "head" resemble the famous Disney flying elephant. It uses these lateral fins to help propel it across the ocean floor where they typically live.

Dumbo Octopi only grow to about 8 inches (20 cm) in length. As bottom dwelling creatures, they eat crustaceans, worms and bivalves from the sea bed. While not much is known about this species of Octopus, they are not considered endangered.