What’s usually purple, but sometimes pink,
and in the summer you might want it in a drink?
Creature: Unique Adaptations
Creatures that have developed specialized adaptations for survival, behavior, or reproduction.
Featured Creature: Kingfisher
What creature often looks blue, but isn’t, is found on every continent but Antarctica, and inspired a train’s design?
Featured Creature: Strangler Fig
What creature grows backwards and can swallow a tree whole?
Featured Creature: ‘Ōhi’a Lehua
What tree has adapted to grow directly in lava rock and is a keystone species of the Hawaiian watershed?
Featured Creature: Stone Pine
What Mediterranean tree is uniquely equipped to withstand wildfires with armor-like bark and high, out of reach, branches?
Featured Creature: Mouse-ear cress
What plant was the first to flower in space and is the most widely used model species for studying plant biology?
Featured Creature: Red kite
What acrobatic raptor was so essential to medieval public health, killing it was a crime and it became the national bird of Wales?
Featured Creature: Cheatgrass
What plant plays an important role in its native Eastern Hemisphere grasslands, but alters soil moisture and fire regimes when introduced in North America?
Featured Creature: Moon Snail
What seemingly cute, small creature is, in fact, a terrifying killer that drills a hole into their prey, liquidizes them, and then sucks them out like a smoothie?
Featured Creature: Slow Loris
What creature has large eyes, dexterous feet, and is the only venomous primate known to exist??
The slow loris (Nycticebus)!
Featured Creature: Iberian Hare
What athletic creature can reach speeds of 45mph and cool itself down with large ears – all in a 2.5 kg frame?
The Iberian hare (Lepus granatensis)!
Featured Creature: Eastern Emerald Elysia
What creature steals photosynthesis, can go a year without eating, and blurs the animal-plant boundary?
The Eastern Emerald Elysia!
Featured Creature: Leafcutter Bee
What creature carves out little pieces of tree leaves to build its nest inside hollow stems?
The Leafcutter Bee!
Featured Creature: Coelacanth
What 200-pound nocturnal sea creature, thought to have gone extinct millions of years ago, was resurrected in 1938?
Featured Creature: Chevrotain
What creature is the world’s smallest ungulate?
The chevrotain!
Featured Creature: Bearded Vulture
What handsome creature dyes its feathers and almost exclusively eats bones?
The bearded vulture!
Featured Creature: Cork Oak
What creature is the engine of the Portuguese economy and works hard to delight wine-lovers around the world?
The Cork Oak!
Featured Creature: Blue Whale
Which creature who helps fight climate change has newborns the size of an adult elephant and is not a fan of boats?
The Blue Whale!
Featured Creature: Banded Sea Krait
What semiaquatic creature has a paddle-like tail, swims through crevices, and can even climb trees?
The banded sea krait!
Featured Creature: Gila Monster
What creature has a venomous bite and is uniquely adapted to survive harsh desert terrain?
The Gila monster!
Featured Creature: Aardvark
What unique animal could be a cross between a rabbit, a pig, an opossum, and an anteater?
The aardvark!
Featured Creature: Northern Cardinal
What instantly recognizable songbird holds seven state titles and has the crown to prove it?
The Northern Cardinal!
Featured Creature: Cat
What mammal makes a mysterious sound that scientists can’t figure out, can jump straight up to a height eight times their body length, and loves us when we love them?
Felis catus, the mostly tame, sometimes feral, house cat!
Featured Creature: Pigeon
What often-overlooked creature is an expert navigator, an impressive postman, and a natural mammographer?
A pigeon!
Featured Creature: Atlantic Puffin
What striking seabird is a master of adaptability in the ocean and the air?
The Atlantic Puffin!
Featured Creature: Flamingo
What long-legged creatures are known for their beauty, social habits, and fabulous flamboyance?
Flamingos!
Featured Creature: Humpback Whale
What species of tremendous size and grace undertakes the largest mammal migration on Earth?
The humpback whale!
Featured Creature: Groundhog
What cute creature is an underground architect and an amateur meteorologist?
The Groundhog!
Featured Creature: Crow
What common bird possesses an uncommon intelligence, including diversified communication, excellent memory, and a talent for mathematics?
The crow!
Featured Creature: Fishing Cat
What fascinating feline with unique adaptations roams the aquatic ecosystems of Southeast Asia?
The fishing cat!
Featured Creature: Bamboo
What organism can grow up to 35 inches in a day, conduct electricity, and survive an atomic bomb?
Bamboo!
Featured Creature: Pando
What is the heaviest, oldest and one of the largest creatures on the planet?
Featured Creature: Black Drongo
What small but fearless songbird can astonish with its aerial acrobatics and is always ready to battle much bigger birds for dominance?
The Black Drongo!
Featured Creature: Nilgai
Which creature is the largest Asian antelope, considered sacred to some and pest to others?
The Nilgai!
Featured Creature: Luna Moths
What nocturnal creatures native to North America are known for their beauty and the fact that they don’t eat at all in their adult life?
Luna moths!
Featured Creature: Beaver
Which creature fights fires, creates wetlands, recharges groundwater, alters landscapes, and is a climate hero?
Beavers!
Featured Creature: Wasps
Which creature is a master of architecture, contributes to human food sources, and has a mutually beneficial relationship with numerous plant species?
Featured Creature: Banded Mongoose
Which creature enjoys social gatherings, is well adapted to its habitat, and can be very altruistic? The Banded Mongoose is a small mammal with a mass of approximately ≤2kg (or 4 lbs) found in (and indigenous to) various parts of Africa. While most other mongoose species live a solitary life, the banded mongoose is gregarious…
Featured Creature: Lichen
Which creature is a combination of two other organisms, comes in bright colors, and helps us measure air quality?
Lichen!
Featured Creature: Clamworm
What sort of worm is festooned with sensitive tentacles all the way down its sides and – though it can’t bark – has a nasty bite? That would be the “clam worm” or alitta succinea, a denizen of estuarial waters. Alternative names I’ve always called them “seaworms” but they are normally known as “clam worms,” “ragworms,”…
Featured Creature: Ladybug
What tiny creature brings luck to farmers and other folks all over the globe? The ladybug! One Lucky Lady Ladybugs, or beetles of the family Coccinellidae, are small, often colorful rounded insects beloved by children’s rhymes and gardeners alike. Ladybugs are thought to be a sign of luck in many cultures and urban myths. Whether it’s…
Featured Creature: Atlas Moth
What creature has no mouth, is known for colorful patterns, and is famous for mimicking a deadly predator?
Featured Creature: Dragonfly
Which creature existed before the dinosaurs, is an aerial genius, and can detect things we can only witness through slow-motion cameras?
Featured Creature: Slime Mold
What brainless creature can learn, problem solve, and even hold down a job?
The slime mold!