Monday, March 14, 2011

10 Most Disturbing Animals on Earth

10 Most Disturbing Animals on Earth
1. Striking Bright Green Snake
This striking bright green snake, commonly known as Gumprecht's green pit viper, is found in the Southeast Asian region of Greater Mekong.

2. Snakefish
Snakefish can be up to over a metre in length and over 6 kilograms in weight. Most snakefish are 2-3 feet long. Some describe snakefish as having a voracious appetite, often consuming all other fish in a lake or pond and even eating its young. It can slither across land, staying out of water for up to three days, to find new sources of food. Norton also warns that once on land snakeheads can eat almost any small animal in its path. They have even attacked people in China who got too close to snakehead egg nesting areas.
3. Giant Isopod
This Terminator look-alike is a Giant Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus), a carnivorous crustacean that spends its time scavenging the deep ocean floor, up to 6,000ft down on the seabed where there is no light. In the pitch black and cold, they survive by feasting on dead and decaying fish and other marine animals.

4. Aye-Aye
Considered by locals as a harbinger of misfortune, the Aye-aye is one of the world’s most rare and bizarre looking primates. To the Malagasy people, the aye-aye is magical, and believed to bring death to the village it appears in; therefore they’re often killed on sight. The aye-aye is the world’s largest nocturnal primate with an average head and body length of 16 inches (40 centimeters), a long bushy tail of 2 feet (61 centimeters) long, and weighs about 4 pounds (2 kilos). The Aye-aye has large beady eyes, black hair, and large spoon-shaped ears. It has 5-fingered hands with flat nails, with a middle finger up to 3 times the length of the others.

5. Star-Nosed Mole

One of the most intriguing stars in the universe is right here on Earth: the eleven pairs of pink fleshy appendages ringing the snout of the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata). His star is an extraordinary touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, called Eimer’s organs, with which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around.

6. The Frilled Lizard
The frilled lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingi) is a yellowish-brown australian lizard has got a large frill of skin to the sides of the neck and throat. It is about 90 cm/35 in long, and when is angry or alarmed, it erects its frill, which may be as much as 25cm/10 in in diameter, thus giving itself the appearance of being larger than it really is. Frilled lizards are generally tree-living but may spend some time on the ground, where they run with their forelimbs in the air.


7. Leaf-Tailed Gecko
The Giant leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus) is endemic to Madagascar and the islands Nosy Bohara and Nosy Mangabe. These geckos live in tropical rain forests and reach a total length of 330 mm. A large nocturnal gecko, by day it plasters it self to a small tree trunk and rests head down. If disturbed it will raise it tail and head, open its mouth and scream… and call his mom.


8. Kerivoula Kachinensis
Another of the species found in one of the world’s last scientifically unexplored regions, Asia’s Greater Mekong, the Kerivoula Kachinensis is one of the most disturbing bats ever found.


9. The Naked Mole Rat
The Naked Mole Rat has little hair (hence the common name) and wrinkled pink or yellowish skin. The naked mole rat is also of interest because it is extraordinarily long-lived for a rodent of its size (up to 28 years). The secret of their longevity is debated, but is thought to be related to the fact that they can shut down their metabolism during hard times, and so prevent oxidative damage.


10. Puss Caterpillar
The inch-long Puss Caterpillar is generously coated in long, luxuriant hair-like setae, making it resemble a tiny Persian cat. The ‘fur’ of the larva contains venomous spines that cause extremely painful reactions in human skin upon contact. The reactions are sometimes localized to the affected area but are often very severe, radiating up a limb and causing burning, swelling, nausea, headache, abdominal distress, rashes, blisters, and sometimes chest pain, numbness, or difficulty breathing (Eagleman 2008). Additionally, it is not unusual to find sweating from the welts or hives at the site of the sting. M. opercularis can be found on oaks, elms, citrus and other trees, and many garden plants such as roses and ivy. It is distributed throughout the southern United States, Mexico, and parts of Central America. The larva does not spin a real cocoon, rather, it separates from its furry skin and uses it as a protective covering while it pupates.