An enormous bird with a long tail and magnificent blue plumage, a black head, coral-red feet, and a golden eye, it inhabits the foothills and lower montane borders, occasionally moving into forested parks, and flies from tree to tree in small swarms to get food. The long tail is very noticeable while flying. It is quite noisy; it makes rasping notes and loud, pointed “kack” sounds.

A rare and vivid lepidopteran, the Madagascan sunset moth is prized by collectors. The moth’s curved, partially reflective scales on its wings optically interact with and scatter light, resulting in its frequently asymmetrical colour pattern.

Sunset moths can grow up to 11 cm in length, and because of their colour, tails, and propensity to rest with their wings vertical, they are frequently mistaken for butterflies. Predators are cautioned by the vivid aposematic colours of their toxicity. The Malagasy people say that the emerging moth is a representation of the resurrected spirit of their deceased ancestors since the moth’s chrysalis resembles a shrouded corpse.

East and central South America are the homes of the swallow-tailed hummingbird. It avoids deep rainforest in favour of semi-open spaces, patchy woods, seaside areas, and gardens. The bird is 16 cm long, with a long, forked tail making up half of that length.

The wings of the swallow-tailed hummingbird flap at a rate of about 20 beats per second, enabling it to hover while consuming floral nectar. Its plumage is a blend of green, blue, and purple. This hummingbird will “dive-bomb” or bother birds as big as hawks because it is aggressive toward other avian species.

The fennec fox is distinguished by its enormous ears, which can reach a length of 15 cm. These ears enable the animal to find underground prey and reflect heat away from it. It hunts primarily at night, preying on insects, small animals, and birds in arid settings.

Without its 30 cm tail, the fennec fox can grow to a maximum size of 40 cm and live up to 14 years. They have the ability to bark, purr, and snarl, and the eagle owl is their primary predator. This fox is incredibly agile and may quickly shift direction to escape becoming prey. The Arabic name for fox is fennec, and the fox is Algeria’s national animal.

The black-backed kingfisher has a length of about 13 cm. It inhabits woody, well-shaded places along streams and rivers in southeast Asia and India. Along the riverbank, these kingfishers consume snails, insects, tiny lizards, frogs, and crabs.

The black-backed kingfisher constructs tunnel-like nests inside the riverbank walls that may be up to a metre long and take more than a week to dig when the monsoon rains start. The job of incubating a clutch of eggs, generally 4 or 5, which hatch after 17 days, is shared by the male and female kingfishers.

Near Australia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, in the south-west Pacific Ocean, swims the mandarin fish. Its spectrum of hues is reminiscent of the robes of an Imperial Chinese mandarin, a senior bureaucrat, and the blue colour is a result of a pigment found only in the cells of the species.

Only 6 cm long, the mandarin fish lives in remote lagoons and reefs and feeds on plankton, tiny crustaceans, snails, and worms. They can have a hard time adjusting to life in an aquarium, so they shouldn’t be kept as pets.

The Siberian tiger, the biggest tiger species on earth, is undoubtedly the most attractive of all apex predators, thanks to its coat of black and orange stripes that serve as camouflage in the wild. Siberian tigers, which are threatened, spend 95% of their lives in eastern Russia and 5% in China.

For nearly 4500 years, the Arabian horse has been bred to be both attractive and useful. One of the most well-liked breeds in the world, it has helped many other horse breeds, particularly racing thoroughbreds, advance in genetics. Its head, which is short, concave, and graceful, is easily identifiable.

A jibbah, or lengthy protrusion between the eyes, is present on the head of an authentic Arabian, according to the Bedouin. Compared to other breeds of horses, the eyes are larger, more widely spaced, and positioned lower on the head. The ears are tiny and occasionally curved inward. The withers are gracefully flowed into by the arching neck, which is both graceful and strong.

Gygis alba, the white tern, is all white with a black bill and big black eyes, in stark contrast to the peacock. It is also known as “the white noddy” and may be found on islands in the Indian Ocean, such as the Maldives and Seychelles, as well as along the Pacific Ocean’s coastlines. Its wingspan ranges from 30 to 34 inches. It is a bird with a long lifespan that can reach over 40 years.

It doesn’t construct a nest on the ground like other terns do. In actuality, the white tern only lays one egg on bare tree branches instead of creating any kind of nest. Thankfully, hatchlings’ feet have evolved to be able to grip tree limbs. The white tern serves as Honolulu’s official bird.

This gorgeous tropical fish with an odd shape is around a foot long and is only found in the Indo-Pacific coast’s coastal waters. It has a body that is roughly oval in shape, is extremely flat, and has a big head and a small mouth with sharp teeth. Near the top of its head, it has two tiny eyes. On its back, it possesses two fins, the first pair of which is composed of three retractable spines. The second spine, or “trigger” spine, which gives the fish its name, raises the first spine before locking it into position. 

The body of this triggerfish is lime green or brown with diagonal orange-yellow stripes, and the stem of the tail bears a black spot. Orange makes up the tail itself.

In the meadows and pine forests of the southern and eastern United States, one can find this lovely non-venomous snake. It has a magnificent colour pattern of black, red, white, or yellow bands throughout its body and grows in length from 2 to 4.27 feet. Due to these bands, potential predators—including people—might mistake it for the poisonous coral snake. However, a kingsnake’s snout can be used to distinguish it from a coral snake since it should be red as opposed to black in the coral snake.

Since their bands are pure red, black, and white, and the white gradually turns yellow with age to the colour of a ripe apricot, young kingsnakes could be said to be more attractive than their older counterparts.

The jungles that stretch from Mexico to Venezuela and Ecuador are home to this tiny frog, which is only 0.8 to 1.26 inches long. It is a vivid pale green colour with patches of yellow and black. It has golden bulging eyes, horizontal black pupils, and a short, blunt snout. You’ll discover the meaning of its name when it’s turned over. Its internal organs are visible through the translucent belly skin.

From the United Kingdom all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea and all the way down the Atlantic coast of Africa, you can find this tiny sea anemone that resembles a flower. It features a body that is dark crimson with up to 192 tentacles that are lighter red or even pink. These tentacles are capable of fully retracting, leaving a crimson or orange glob behind. The anemone frequently inhabits tidal pools where the tide does not come in for extended periods of time, so this capacity is advantageous. Just below the tentacles, when they are open, are small blue beads. The stinging cells of the anemone are contained in these beads, known as acrorhagi. Beadlet anemones are nevertheless occasionally kept in aquariums at home.

These sea slugs without shells come in a wide variety of hues. From the icy Arctic to the very cold Southern Sea around Antarctica, they can be found in every sea in the world. The smallest is around 0.16 of an inch long, and the longest is about 2 feet long; they are found in shallow coral reefs and as deep as 8200 feet. Some nudibranchs consume venomous creatures like men of war or sea anemones, and they then store the poison in fleshy spikes on their bodies known as cerata. They are hermaphrodites, and they have genitalia on the right side of their bodies and directly behind their heads. 

Although it could be tempting to include certain exquisite butterfly species, such as the mother-of-pearl morpho, Chrysina aurigans is actually the most exquisite insect in existence. This beetle of the Costa Rican rainforest can reach lengths of a little over half an inch to just over an inch and resembles a polished, 24-karat gold nugget. Even the most brilliantly coloured lepidopteran will lose against any bug that appears to be formed of solid gold, despite the fact that its shimmering hue is an optical illusion.