Scientists estimate there are about 8.7 million species of animals alive today. With all that diversity there are bound to be some strange ones. Here are ten of the funniest looking!

1 Tufted Deer
This is definite proof that vampires do exist. The deer are about to have their revenge on the Cullens!

tufted deer

2  Naked Mole Rat
Why do I feel like this photo is a meme just waiting to happen? Or maybe it already is and I don't know about it... Weird fact: it has no pain sensation in its skins.

Angry female naked mole rat. Credit: Buffenstein/Barshop Institute/UTHSCSA

3 Gerenuk
Yes it’s funny-looking, but it’s also quite beautiful. Gerenuk is Somali for “giraffee-necked”.

gerenuk

4 Sunda Colugo
This animal has the same eyes as my chihuahua. Only difference is I wouldn't be able to catch this guy as he lives only in trees.

sunda colugo

5 Zebra Duiker
I’m thinking a zebra and an antelope got drunk one night and… well you can see where I was going with that. But seriously, the stripes help hide them from predators.

zebra-duiker

6 Superb Bird of Paradise
The peacock has nothing on this guy. These birds have an unusually low population of females, so competition for mates is fierce. This has resulted in one of the most bizarre ways of attracting a female, which you can see from these photos.

SuperbBOPshapeslide

7 Gobi Jerboa
Don’t try to whisper around him, he’ll hear you. These little guys live in deserts mostly. They are solitary creatures and are so sneaky that no one can figure just how many of them there are.

gobi jerboa

8 Tarsier
You should see what his face looks like when he’s surprised. The Tarsier’s eyeballs are 16 mm in diameter, which also happens to be how large its brain is.

tarsier

9 Aye-aye
If he ever told me was sober I wouldn’t believe him. These guys are actually primates and were thought to be extinct in 1933 but they turned up again in 1957.

OSCAA-00000009-001

10 Pink Fairy Armadillo
Yes, this animal is real. It looks like someone glued a shell onto a mole, but that’s actually a part of the animal. They are nicknamed “sand-swimmers” because of the incredible with which it can burrow through the ground.

pink fairy armadillo

There are many, many more bizarre animals out there, but we'll save those for future blogs!

I hope you had a laugh and learned a little something from this.

Posted by Jonathan Cocco
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