Critter Science
The Science of Animals
The crown-of-thorns starfish, aka “Bula”, is a destructive species that has caused a massive amount of destruction to reefs around tropical lagoons and deep water locations. They can be found in the Indo-Pacific Region; in places like Japan, the Red Sea, the
The helmeted hornbill is a cool critter indeed. From their large size, to their unique bill, to their unusual call that ends in a crazy laughing sound. These birds are more than worthy of an article. These critters are found in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and
The Sunda colugo, aka the flying lemur is a freaky cool critter from Southeast Asia and on some of the Philippine Islands. More specifically from Indochina and southern Thailand to peninsular Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, and
Looking like a purple bean bag with a pointed nose, the purple frog calls the Western Ghats of India its home. They spend most of the year buried in the loamy soil in wait for the monsoon season, where they emerge to reproduce. These purple wonders are also known as the pignose frog or
The massive whale shark can be found in a variety of waters. To see one is a spectacle to behold. They can be found in the waters off the coasts of the Seychelles, Honduras, the Philippines, the Maldives, Western Australia’s
The pink fairy armadillo, aka pichiciego, is native to the grasslands, sandy plains, and sand dunes of central Argentina. Of all the armadillos, these are the smallest. These diminutive critters are the only armadillo species whose dorsal shell is totally separate from its body. It is connected to
The superb bird of paradise is a newly classified species of the birds of paradise family. They were first discovered in 1930. However, they were put into their own species category in 2018. They reside in the rainforests of
The giant Gippsland earthworm can only be found in the clay heavy soil along streams in Victoria, Australia. These giants are so elusive that they were only discovered in the late 1800s. They are isolated to just 150 square miles along the southeast tip of Australia. Their habitat was
Undeniably one of the world’s cutest little critters is the Japanese dwarf flying squirrel. These fluff balls inhabit the Honshu and Kyushu Islands of Japan. They prefer boreal, evergreen forests. 40 of 43 known species of flying squirrels are native to Asia. They naturally exist nowhere else on
Once thought extinct, the silver-backed chevrotain was recently rediscovered in Vietnam in 2019! It had been 30 years since the last sighting. It was found by the Global Wildlife Conservation and partners Southern Institute of Ecology and Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research. Scientific journal