Wild Animals That Have Rarely Been Seen

The world we live in is chock-full of crazy and colourful creatures, but a few are so seldom seen that you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re mythical beings! From deep in the oceans to high in the trees, these crazy critters can hide just about anywhere. Let's go on a safari of some of the strangest wild animals that have rarely been seen!

Black-Spotted Cuscus

The dense forests of Northern New Guinea are home to thousands, if not millions, of animal species. But there's one slinking about in the darkness that’s as confusing as it is captivating! This is the Black-Spotted Cuscus, a mysterious marsupial that looks like a cross between a cat, a fox, and a monkey!

Though we don’t know much about it, what we do know is fascinating. For a start, those snake-like eyes are very useful for seeing in the dark. Much like cats and foxes, the Cuscus’s vertically slit pupils allow it to see excellently at night, while also blocking out harmful daylight in the sunlit hours!

As well as being nocturnal, these freaky furballs are arboreal, meaning they live in trees. Using their arched front claws and 20-inch tail, they nimbly navigate the very tips of the treetops in search of tasty fruits and leaves. But even though they seem safe up there, they’ve been pushed to the brink of extinction thanks to deadly deforestation and human hunting efforts.

And now, so little is known about these animals that we don’t even know how many are left in the wild! That’s enough to make anyone cuss!

Pyrenean Desman

In Catalonia’s Alt Pirineu National Park, a strange combination of a rat, mole, and platypus scurries around on the ground entirely undetected, that is, until it’s caught. This elusive little animal is a Pyrenean Desman.

Using its twitchy trunk-like nose, it roots through mud and crevices for insects and fish like a tiny, carnivorous elephant. Unlike an elephant though, these little critters are also amphibious! They can close their nostrils and ears while swimming, and their paddle-like paws allow them to zip through the water like some sort of furry fish!

But because this minute mammal is only about 5 inches long, nocturnal, and lightning fast, it’s very hard to spot! The little pocket rocket is so hard to study in fact, that researchers have resorted to hunting for its poop instead! It’s a dirty way of extracting DNA from the animals without having to dive into the water after them! But maybe those researchers are looking in the wrong places, because some Desman seem to care more about having fun than running away!

Desman des Pyrénées (2) by aquilegia.fr

Gooty Tarantula

The Gooty Tarantula is a spider that is as spine-tinglingly scary as it is bizarrely beautiful! The sapphire spider was first found in the town of Gooty, Southern India, in 1899, before completely disappearing for 102 years until it was spotted again in 2001!

You might be wondering how something so strikingly blue with a huge, 8-inch leg-span could possibly vanish for so long. But that’s because the Gooty is actually a very timid tarantula. Instead of attacking, the spider will opt to flee in most situations.

And, as a tree-dweller, it often lurks high above eye-level, staying well out of sight of most humans. But if provoked, it will bite, and its poisonous fangs are so fatal that they can leave humans in intense pain for over a week! Not that it seems to bother this man, who actually owns one of the incredibly rare creatures:

BEAUTIFUL BLUE TARANTULA! Poecilotheria metallica (Gooty Sapphire Ornamental) by Holly Szymanski

They’re not exactly my idea of a cute pet! Though some are kept in captivity, it’s now almost impossible to find them in the wild because their habitats are being destroyed by deforestation. No wonder they look so blue!

Tonkin Snub-Nosed Monkeys

The mountaintops of the Khau Ca forests of Northern Vietnam are so high, parts of them soar spectacularly above the clouds, although that’s not the forests’ most incredible feature. Because it’s here, in trees perched up to 4,000 ft above sea level, that the Tonkin Snub-Nosed Monkeys climb. They may sound majestic, but up close they look a lot more like clowns!

With a blue face, bright white eyes, and huge pink lips, it looks like the poor primates tried to put makeup on without a mirror! Even their babies are born looking like they’re about to perform in a drag show! But we shouldn’t laugh, because they’re actually one of the 25 most endangered primate species in the world. Today, only about 200 are left in the wild, thanks to intense poaching and massive habitat loss. Looks like this primate’s appearance is the least of its problems!

Giant Squid

Despite their huge size, it’s still very rare to catch a sighting of an aptly named Giant Squid. That’s because these colossal cephalopods usually live in the darkest depths of the ocean, around 2,000 feet below the waves! So elusive are these massive sea monsters that it wasn’t until 2006 that the first footage of one was captured, taken off the coast of Japan!

first video of a live giant squid captured by George Uriel

But considering there are an estimated 4.3 million giant squids swimming around, the lack of sightings is astounding. This injured squid however, off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, must have lost its way:

Giant Squid Attacks Surfboard! by James Taylor

It’s possible the animal was attacked by a sperm whale, their only known predator, or it could’ve gotten into a fight with one of its own kind. Scientists know from cutting open giant squid carcasses that they live on a diet of deep-water fish and even other giant squids, so anything’s possible!

They show no interest in feasting on human flesh though, which is lucky, because the eight-armed titans also have two long feeding tentacles lined with razor-sharp, serrated suckers. Using these, they can snatch prey up to an astonishing 33 feet away. Then, they reel the unfortunate cargo towards them before munching it into tiny pieces with their powerful beaks!

Considering the behemoths can grow up to 43 feet long, which is about the size of 7 to 8 adults, I don’t think a human would stand much of a chance against one! What’s more, the growth rings on statoliths, which are small, mineralized masses that help squids to balance, suggest they don’t live any longer than 5 years. So, they must grow at an insane pace, and need an equally insane amount of food to sustain all that growth. Thankfully they don’t have a taste for human, or we’d all be in deep water!

Bumblebee Bat

You’d better look really closely if you want to get a glimpse of this miniature creature! With a body slightly over an inch long that weighs even less than a penny, the Bumblebee Bat is believed to be the smallest mammal in the entire world! It’s so small that, unlike other bats, it can actually hover in the air like a hummingbird, and dart away just as quickly!

But it’s not just its tiny size that means it’s hardly ever seen; it’s also classed as a vulnerable species in Thailand and Myanmar, where it lives. Like regular bats, they cling to the ceilings of caves in clusters during the day. But Monks that use the bats’ caves to meditate in, and tourists trying to spy the rare animals, have disturbed and damaged these precious natural habitats. That’s not to say the flying furballs haven’t fought back though!

Reddit user Skididlydoo recalled a tour-guide’s tale about a group of tourists who noisily tramped around one of these caves, waking all the little bats clustered high above. And they were not happy. Furiously, the crazy critters swooped down from the ceiling and pelted themselves at the tourists like a big, fuzzy hailstorm!

Sea Pigs

Sea Pigs are a type of sea cucumber that live in the deepest, darkest, coldest parts of the ocean some 4 miles below the surface. And even though they’re very common down there, they live in such an extreme location that we will probably never see one with our own eyes. Which is a shame, because they’re so strange we could sit and watch them for hours!

Even though these bloated, water-filled sausages only grow to about 6 ½ inches long, they’re bigger than almost everything else at these depths. But if anything does try to eat them, they possess a poisonous skin to help repel the attacker!

Not that anything with half a brain would try to eat it; Imagine putting that creepy little thing in your mouth! As such, they spend most of their days happily sucking up detritus from the ocean floor, completely carefree. They must be as happy as a pig in mud!

Purple Frog

The lumpy, squishy Purple Frog is such a peculiar shape that it’s been dubbed the doughnut frog by some! This species lives underground and only emerges to breed for a few brief hours a year. In fact, the frog is so elusive that it took scientists until 2003 to discover it even existed!

This is partly because it only lives in the Periyar region of India. It might also be because its mating call sounds less like that of a frog, and more like a lost chicken:

Calls of an Indian Purple Frog by PLOS Media

Usually, these frogs call from the burrows and nests they make underground. Here, baby tadpoles are born from eggs laid in crevices, holes, and the underside of stones, and spend 100 days developing while clinging to bedrocks. Then, when they’ve grown into their final fleshy form, they burrow deep underground and use their pointed snout to gobble up ants and termites. The only time they travel to the surface at all is during mating season, when the male hilariously rides the female to the surface!

Amur Leopard

If ever an animal could be more different from the bloated blob of purple frogs, it’s the Amur Leopard. This beautiful big cat lives in Russian and Chinese rainforests and can run up to a blazing-fast 37 miles per hour! But even with such incredible speed, sadly it can’t outrun poachers, who have hunted it to the point where only 70 remain in the wild.

Today, the Amur Leopard is the world’s most endangered cat, and its uniqueness has been its biggest downfall. The cat’s coat can grow almost 3 inches thick due to the cold climate, and is paler than other leopards’ coats. Unfortunately, this makes it very attractive for poachers looking to make a profit on the gorgeous fur.

But thanks to conservation efforts by Russia and China, Amur leopard numbers are increasing again in their native forest habitat! And when they’re hidden amongst the trees, it’s not hard to see why they’re known as the greatest stalkers and climbers of all the big cats!

Amazingly, Amur Leopards can tackle prey up to 10 times their own body weight, and then carry all that weight with them up trees to hide the kills from other predators. However, there are also about 200 Amur Leopards in captivity, where they enjoy a luxurious lifestyle with all the creature comforts provided!

Amur Leopards Pounce into the San Diego Zoo by San Diego Zoo

Great Potoo

Despite standing up to 2-foot tall, with bulging, bright yellow eyes, and a massive mouth, the Great Potoo isn’t an obvious animal. Even with all its freaky features, this South and Central American bird is actually a master of disguise, using its mottled brown color to blend-in seamlessly with the trees it rests on.

It can hold this rigid position all day, and even during storms, so that no potential predators spot it! Even while sleeping, it remains staunch to its post, and, crazily, can detect approaching predators by using narrow openings at the bottom of its eyelids. So, these incredible creatures can see with their eyes closed!

But when the night falls, the Great Potoo springs to life. Plucking beetles and moths out of the air with that big beak, it only stops feeding to make a strange, haunting cry that echoes around the woods it lives in.

Nyctibius griseus / Mãe da Lua / Urutau / Common Potoo - Jaguariuna - SP - Brazil - Setembro 2010 by Alex T F

Okapi

At a glance, what sort of animal would you say the lesser-known Okapi is?

Did those stripes on its behind make you think it was a member of the Zebra family? Despite those signature streaks, Okapi’s are actually the only living relative of the giraffe!

While it doesn’t look like much of a giraffe on the outside, one trait it does share with its stretched-necked cousins is a long, black tongue! Like Giraffes, Okapi use their terrifying tongues to reach up and strip buds and leaves from trees. But they also use it to groom themselves, and can even lick their own ears and eyelids with the 18-inch monstrosity!

However, when they’re not licking their own eyes, these secretive animals wander the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the only place they can be found in the wild. Although, you probably wouldn’t find any if you went looking yourself! Not only are the Okapi well camouflaged, but those big upright ears are super-sensitive to sound, too! So, they’d hear you and scarper long before you saw them!

Scientists have also discovered that as well as their normal bleats, Okapi have a secret language using frequencies so low that humans can’t hear the slightest sound at all! And it’s a good job they’re skilled at avoiding people, because sadly they’re hunted extensively and now about 25,000 remain in the wild.

Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle

Softshell Turtles come in all shapes and sizes, from the fairly common Florida variety, all the way up to their narrow-headed Indian cousins. But the big daddy of them all is, without a doubt, the Yangtze Giant softshell turtle.

At more than 440 lbs, these phenomenal freshwater creatures continuously grow for more than 100 years to weigh about the same as three adult humans! But despite their enormous size and weight, there are so few left in the wild that your chances of seeing one are next to none. Due to pollution, hunting, and the destruction of their wetland habitats in China and Vietnam, the species is as close to extinct as it’s possible to be.

In grand total, just five of these weird looking turtles are left in the whole world! What’s more, of the five we know of, only one is a female, so conservationists in Vietnam are on a mission to get her to mate with a male. So far, there’s been no luck, but females can lay up to a whopping 40 eggs at a time! So, there’s still hope that the turtles could be saved within a year!

Vaquita

Also competing for the title of world’s rarest animal, we have the Vaquita. Of the seven species of porpoise, vaquitas are the second smallest, weighing around 95 pounds, which is less than half the weight of the largest porpoises.

Though not quite as rare as the Yangtze Softshell Turtle, there are only around 10 of these adorable ocean critters alive today. In fact, the pretty porpoises are so rarely seen that until recently many people believed they were mythical creatures!

But even if there were more in the wild, they’d still be pretty difficult to spot seeing as they’re only about 4 ft long. They do, however, have a relatively big dorsal fin, which scientists believe is used to dissipate heat. This is needed because Vaquitas live exclusively in much warmer waters than many other porpoises.

Sadly, Vaquita numbers are dwindling because of illegal fishing operations in Mexico’s Gulf of California, where the very last of these amazing animals live. Fishermen regularly cast out nets to hunt totoaba fish, which are also endangered, and in doing so accidentally snag vaquitas as well.

So, despite looking like they’re smiling, there really isn’t a lot for these guys to smile about.

Goblin Shark

Imagine swimming down into the ocean, reaching the crushing, dark depths almost a mile below the waves when, all of a sudden, a terrifying face emerges from the blackness! Meet the aptly named Goblin Shark.

Despite its looks, this deep sea-lurker poses no danger to humans, because it lives at depths of around 4,300 feet. Which is lucky, because just one look at its massive jaws is enough to make anyone never want to step foot in the ocean again!

With anywhere between 31 and 62 rows of teeth, it has no problem crushing, cutting, and chewing up any crustaceans and small fish it can find on the ocean floor. And it’s an excellent hunter too, utilizing its special low-density flesh to silently drift towards prey without alerting them.

Most terrifyingly of all though, when the 12-foot stalker is close enough to its catch, it does something truly unique. In one swift movement the goblin shark can dislocate its jaw and propel all 62 rows of teeth forward at a ferociously fast 10.2 feet per second!

Goblin shark bites by PSWG3

Lowland Streaked Tenrec

At first glance, you’d be mistaken for thinking this yellow-streaked, mouse-like creature is some kind of long-lost Pokémon! But you won’t find it lurking in the long grass, because this is a Lowland Streaked Tenrec, and it prefers to spend its time in underground burrows throughout eastern Madagascar.

Because of their subterranean lifestyle, very little is known about these creatures, including how many even exist! But what we do know is crazy. Living in groups of around 20, the tenrecs communicate to each other using special quills found along their 6-inch bodies. By rubbing the quills together, they make sounds through “stridulation”. It’s the same process crickets use when they rub their legs together to make chirping noises, but tenrecs are the only mammals in the world that do this!

But their knack for clever communication doesn’t mean they aren’t up for a fight! If threatened, the spiny little beasts raise the quills around their neck and will violently buck their head at their attacker. So, it's not recommended trying to catch these tiny terrors, with or without a Pokéball!

Lowland streaked tenrec endemic from Madagascar by Juliano Cabral

Sumatran Rhino

The super rare Sumatran Rhino may not look all that tiny, but they are the smallest of their kind in the world! If you were to stand toe to toe with one of these tiny rhinos, you’d probably tower over them as they only stand up about 5 feet tall! But you shouldn’t underestimate the full force of these 2000 lb powerhouses, because if one charged at you, it would be like getting smacked in the stomach by two racehorses at once!

While their size certainly makes them stand out, it’s the luscious locks covering their body that really sets them apart from the rest of the Rhino family. This is because they’re the closest living relative to the woolly rhino, a long extinct species that last roamed the earth around 12,000 years ago during the ice age!

Unfortunately, if trends continue, hair might not be the only thing Sumatran Rhinos share with their extinct woolly cousins. Due to habitat loss and fragmented populations, the number of Sumatran Rhinos has declined across Asia, and now fewer than 80 survive on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

But even in captivity, only two females have reproduced in the last 15 years! Take a look at one of their most recent babies. Cute, right? Or, kind of creepy?

Elephant Shrew

The Elephant Shrew, also known as a Sengi, is a very odd little animal. Ranging from about 4 to 12 inches long, these miniature mammals sport trunk-like noses that they use to efficiently find and hoover up juicy grubs and insects. They’re so effective at searching for creepy crawlies that they play a vital role in keeping insect populations down around South Africa.

But natural disasters like droughts and forest fires have led to a worrying decline in Sengi numbers over the past decade. And even before this, the shrews were highly elusive animals! So elusive in fact, that the Somali sengi disappeared completely in the 1970s and wasn’t officially seen again for 50 whole years!

Recently, however, a team of scientists in Djibouti, East Africa, set more than 1000 traps in 12 different locations to see if the little critters were still around. They traps were covered in an extensive combination of foods like peanut butter, oatmeal, and even yeast! After all this effort though, they only found 12 of the shy shrews. Maybe they should have tried something that smells and tastes like bugs instead.

Shoebill Stork

Lurking in the swamps of eastern Africa, giant statues of prehistoric looking birds are perched over the water’s edge. But for all their stillness, these aren’t actually statues, they’re Shoebill storks!

At a shocking five-foot tall, these intimidating creatures can stand stone still for hours on end, waiting for prey to pass by. And the second something catches their ominous eyes, they leap into action, striking with their huge, serrated bills and completely engulfing whatever’s unfortunate enough to have gotten near.

And Shoebills are known to eat massive, 6 ½ -foot-long monitor lizards, as well as baby crocodiles, so nothing is safe! Then, they swill out any excess water from their bill before decapitating their food. Despite its daunting demeanor, the Shoebill’s method of keeping cool is much less intimidating. The birds actually poop themselves, and as the putrid liquid slides down their hot legs it evaporates, cooling the animals down as it does so!

Somehow, that makes them even scarier, never underestimate an animal, or human, that isn’t afraid to poop themselves in front of you! Despite their rancid reputation though, Shoebills are actually very docile around humans and are important predators in the ecosystem they live in. Even so, they’re, understandably, seen as bad omens and are mercilessly hunted, even today.

Their swamp habitats are also being destroyed by humans, and now, less than 6,000 of them exist in the wild! As much as I find them terrifying, I’d be sad to see them gone! Just as long as they don’t poop themselves anywhere near me!

I hope you were amazed at these wild animals that have rarely been seen. Thanks for reading!