Often it is the cute and cuddly animals that get the most attention, but let’s spare some time and love for the freaks and oddballs of the natural world! Meet our 10 weirdest animals
With over 8.7 million species of animals in the world, it’s perhaps no surprise that evolution has produced some particularly peculiar-looking ones! Ugly as some of them may be, these so-called weird animals often become some of the most loved and well know (especially in the age of the internet meme – looking at you blobfish!).
There will be some on this list that you have probably never heard of, however, and you are sure to learn some new fun facts about your favourite.
So, from the outlandish and awesome to the frankly funny-looking, here are our top ten weirdos of the animal kingdom.
10 weirdest animals
Red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini)
The oceans have no lack of crazy-shaped and bizarre-looking animals (as you will see from this list), but the red-lipped batfish really is a stand-out. With its crimson pout, protruding snout, and spindly ‘legs’ it really is one-of-a-kind. As well as being strange looking, it has some pretty unusual behaviours and abilities.
The ‘legs’ are actually highly adapted pectoral, pelvic and anal fins, and although poor swimmers they are quite adept at walking along the sea floor using them. The snout that extends out from the top of its head is a chemical-emitting structure called an illicium, thought to be used for luring in prey.
Blobfish (Psychrolutes microporos)
No list of weird animals would be complete without a mention of the notorious blobfish! Like the batfish, this unlovely fish dwells on the ocean floor, but much much deeper.
Whereas the batfish lives at a maxim of around 120m deep, the blobfish can be found at 1,200m! It is this deep-water living that causes it to look like an “85-year-old Mr Blobby” (according to the fish manager at the Australian Museum which holds the most well-known and photographed specimen). The blobfish is actually a very misunderstood and unfairly judged creature.
At depth, the pressure can be more than 100 times what we experience on the surface, and when an animal is brought up this can mean its appearance can change. In the case of the blobfish, the change in pressure causes it to expand and its features to distort, turning it into the ugly blob we know and love. On the ocean floor, they just look like fish (though still no prize-winning beauty)!
Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)
Now, this is one you likely won’t have heard of the adorably funny-faced Irrawaddy Dolphin. Found in coastal areas and rivers in South and Southeast Asia, with their beady eyes and happy round faces, these curious cetaceans almost look like a bad children’s drawing of a dolphin. Unfortunately, however there are very few of these smiling dolphins left, with as little as 92 individuals are estimated to still exist. The primary threat is accidental entanglement and downing in fishing nets, which they are more susceptible to than dolphins that live further out into the ocean.
Learn more about river dolphins
Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus)
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2023/04/Lowland-Streaked-Tenrec-ddf6100.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Looking more like a bedraggled bumblebee than the mammal it is, this species belongs to a very curious group indeed. Tenrecs, including this species, are mostly endemic to the island of Madagascar and despite all being quite closely related are wildly diverse, varying hugely in body size, look, and lifestyle.
Despite not looking much like one another, many do however closely resemble other species of animals that they are not closely related to at all. Some look like hedgehogs, some shrews, others rats and mice. As such they are both an example of both divergent and convergent evolution.
Divergent being when species in the same group evolve different traits in response to different habitats and lifestyles, convergent being when species in different groups evolve to have similar features due to similar environmental pressures. The lowland streaked tenrec for example, like distantly related hegehogs, has evolved sharp spines as a defence from predators. A very similar solution to the same problem.
Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber)
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2022/09/Naked-mole-rat-is-the-longest-living-rodent-7179063.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412" "\"\"")
The next on our list is a stand-out both in terms of looks and lifestyle (and pretty much everything else). Naked mole rats are pink, nearly bald, extraordinarily long-lived rodents that live in subterranean burrows and have a social system most similar to that of bees!
What about all that isn’t weird and wonderful? Like many bees, ants, termites, and wasps, naked mole rats are eusocial. This means that they live in large colonies where only one female (the queen) and a select few males are allowed to breed and the rest of the colony spend their whole lives as workers and soldiers, creating tunnels and protecting the colony from predators. They are the only mammal that lives in this way.
Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica)
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2015/06/GettyImages-590490766-7acb097.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
This species surely wins the prize for the weirdest-looking antelope out there (perhaps closely followed by the gerenuk). Its strange, bulbous nose actually has a very serious and important function, however. Living in the semi-desert grasslands of Central Asia (in Mongolia and Kazakhstan) saigas must endure very harsh conditions.
Not only do they have to contend with hot summers and freezing winters, they also deal with clouds of dust kicked up by the herd during their mammoth migrations. Their big, drooping noses will warm up frigid air before it enters their lungs, as well as filter out dust, helping them to survive in an unforgiving landscape.
Learn about a shocking mass-mortality event of saigas
Atretochoana eiselti
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2023/04/Atretochoana-eiselti-4ade817.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C445" "\"\"")
You probably haven’t heard the name of this species before, but you may perhaps have heard what some call it. The penis snake… It’s not too difficult to see why it got that charming moniker, however, it is not actually a snake but a caecilian!
Caecilians are limbless amphibians that live hidden in soil or streambeds, feeding on insects and earthworms. A particularly fascinating (or gross, depending on how you see it) fact about these amphibians is that after giving birth some species allow their young to feed on a special outer layer of their own skin, which the hatchlings peel off with specially modified teeth!
Atretochoana eiselti is not one of these species but is set apart by being the only known lungless caecilian and in fact the largest tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) to lack lungs.
Sea Pig (Scotoplanes genus)
You don’t get much weirder looking than the sea pig, a genus of sea cucumbers that look straight out of Doctor Who. Named for their plump, pink, and rounded bodies, sea pigs are very abundant, but you are unlikely to ever see one, living as they do at depths of over 1,200 to 5,000 metres (that’s over three miles!).
Their mode of locomotion is one of their many bizarre characteristics. They crawl across the deep-sea floor using specialised tubular “legs” that can be inflated and deflated with water, moving with hydraulics. This also allows them to churn up the soft mud under their “feet” as they move, freeing bits of decaying plant and animal material to snack on.
Potoo (Nyctibiidae family)
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2023/04/Potoo-5849882.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"\"")
When it comes to birds, there is a particularly rich crop of weirdos to choose from. For example, the gaudy-hued king vulture was just pipped to the post, and the shoebill is out there doing its unnerving stare…
The potoo cannot be beaten on the funny factor, however! This group of birds, closely related to nightjars and frogmouths, can be found in the forests of Central and South America. They are nocturnal, hunting flying insects from a perch at night, and spending their days blending into tree stumps with their remarkably convincing camouflage.
See some more fascinating examples of animal camouflage in our gallery.
Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox)
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2023/04/Florida-softshell-turtle-0cb57ac.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"\"")
The last on our list probably has one of the funniest, grumpiest faces in the whole of the animal kingdom! Found (as the name suggests) primarily in the US state of Florida, these singular reptiles are almost entirely aquatic, their snorkel-like noses and long necks allowing them to easily breathe from the surface whilst remaining mostly submerged.
Like all softshell turtles, instead of having a hard scaly carapace, they instead have a pliable cartilaginous one covered in leathery skin. They also employ a camouflage technique known as countershading, wherein an animal’s underside is lighter than the upper side of its body. This has the effect of counteracting natural shadowing (where sunlight coming from above makes the upper side lighter) so that the animal looks less solid and less conspicuous.
Learn about the differences between turtles and tortoises