Aardvarks are unusual African mammals with long snouts, huge ears, strong claws, and sticky tongues. They sleep in burrows during the day and come out at night to search for ants and termites.

The aardwolf is a small African mammal in the hyena family. Its name means earth wolf, but it is neither a wolf nor a bone-crushing hunter. Aardwolves are shy, mostly nocturnal insect eaters that use long sticky tongues to lick up huge numbers of termites without smashing open the termite mound.

The American badger is a stout, powerful member of the weasel family that lives across open parts of North America. Its wedge-shaped head, bold white facial stripe, broad body, and enormous front claws are built for digging. Badgers pursue ground squirrels, pocket gophers, prairie dogs, and other prey underground, sometimes even hunting near coyotes that chase animals escaping above ground.

The American mink is a sleek semi-aquatic member of the weasel family native to North America. It has a long flexible body, short legs, dense dark fur, partly webbed toes, and a thick tail. Mink patrol shorelines and wetlands, slipping between land and water to hunt fish, crayfish, frogs, birds, eggs, and small mammals. The species is now often called Neogale vison, although older sources use Neovison vison.

The Asian palm civet is a mostly nocturnal mammal native to South and Southeast Asia. It belongs to the civet family, Viverridae, rather than the cat or raccoon families. A dark facial mask, long body, grasping feet, strong claws, and a tail nearly as long as the body help it move through forests, farms, gardens, and even some towns while searching for ripe fruit and small prey.

Atlas moths are giant silk moths from Asian forests. They are famous for huge patterned wings, snake-like wing tips, fluffy bodies, and a short adult life focused mostly on finding a mate and laying eggs.

Aye-ayes are rare nocturnal lemurs from Madagascar with huge ears, big eyes, bushy tails, strong teeth, and one extra-long skinny middle finger. They tap on wood to find insects hiding inside trees.

Bandicoots are small to medium Australasian marsupials with pointed snouts, strong claws, and longer back legs than front legs. They dig little cone-shaped holes while searching for insects, seeds, roots, and other food.

Barn owls are pale, graceful owls with heart-shaped faces, dark eyes, soft feathers, and amazing hearing. They hunt mostly at night and are often found near farms, fields, barns, grasslands, and old buildings.

Bats are amazing mammals with wings. They are the only mammals that can truly fly, and many bats use echolocation to find their way and catch food in the dark.

Bilbies are small Australian marsupials with very long ears, silky fur, pointed snouts, and strong digging claws. They live in dry habitats, come out mostly at night, and use burrows to stay safe from heat and danger.

Binturongs are shaggy rainforest mammals with black fur, tufted ears, long whiskers, and a gripping tail. They are also called bearcats, even though they are not bears or cats.

This page focuses on jumping bristletails, the small wingless insects in the order Archaeognatha. They are not silverfish, even though both groups have tapered bodies and three rear filaments. Bristletails hide beneath bark, stones, leaf litter, or in rock crevices and can spring away when disturbed by snapping the abdomen against the ground.

Bush babies, also called galagos, are small African primates with huge eyes, big ears, soft fur, long tails, and springy back legs. They live in trees and are mostly active at night.

The bushpig, Potamochoerus larvatus, is a sturdy wild pig native to eastern and southern Africa. It lives in forests, wetlands, scrub, mountains, farmland edges, and other places offering thick cover and food. Bushpigs are mainly active at night, use muscular snouts to root through soil, and live in family groups called sounders. They are close relatives of red river hogs but usually have darker, coarser coats and shorter ear tassels.

Cats are curious, playful, and graceful animals that have lived with people for thousands of years. They are known for their whiskers, sharp senses, soft fur, and love of exploring.

Centipedes are fast many-legged arthropods that hunt small animals in moist hidden places. They have one pair of legs on each body segment and special venom claws, so wild centipedes should be watched from a safe distance and never handled.

Civets are small to medium mammals with long bodies, pointed faces, spotted or striped coats, and strong scent glands. Many civets are active at night and live in forests, grasslands, and wooded habitats of Africa and Asia.

Cockroaches are flat-bodied insects with long antennae, fast legs, and a very old family history. Most cockroaches live outdoors in warm habitats, while only a few species are famous household pests.

Colugos are unusual gliding mammals from Southeast Asian forests. They are sometimes called flying lemurs, but they are not true lemurs and they do not really fly; they glide on a wide skin membrane.

The Common Toad, Bufo bufo, is a sturdy amphibian native to much of Europe and parts of western Asia. It has dry-looking warty skin, copper or golden eyes with horizontal pupils, short legs, and large poison glands behind the eyes. Common Toads usually spend the year on land in woodland, gardens, hedges, and fields, returning to traditional ponds in spring to breed and lay long strings of eggs.

Crickets are chirping insects related to grasshoppers and katydids. They are known for long antennae, strong jumping legs, nighttime songs, and males that make music by rubbing parts of their front wings together.

Dormice are small rodents known for big eyes, fluffy tails, and long periods of sleep. Many live in forests, hedgerows, and woodlands, where they climb through branches searching for fruit, nuts, flowers, and insects.

Earwigs are flat, slender insects known for the pincer-like forceps at the end of the body. Despite old stories about ears, earwigs do not crawl into ears on purpose. Most hide in dark damp places and come out at night.

Emperor scorpions are large black scorpions from western Africa. They have big pincers, a curved tail with a stinger, eight legs, and a quiet nighttime life in warm forests and savannas.

The European badger, Meles meles, is a sturdy black, white, and gray member of the weasel family. It lives across much of Europe and into western Asia in woodland, farmland, grassland, scrub, and even some suburbs. European badgers are powerful diggers that shelter in underground tunnel systems called setts. They emerge mainly after dark to search for earthworms, insects, fruit, roots, small animals, and other seasonal foods.

Fireflies are soft-bodied beetles famous for glowing at night. They are also called lightning bugs, and many use flashing lights from their abdomens to find mates or send signals in warm fields, gardens, forests, and wetlands.

Flying squirrels are tree-living rodents that do not truly fly like birds or bats. They glide between trees using furry skin membranes stretched between their front and back legs, steering with their limbs and tails.

Fox is a common name for several small to medium-sized members of the dog family, Canidae. The best-known true foxes belong to the genus Vulpes and include Red, Arctic, Fennec, Swift, Kit, Bengal, Corsac, and Tibetan foxes. Other fox-named canids include gray foxes, bat-eared foxes, and South American foxes from separate evolutionary branches. Foxes inhabit tundra, deserts, mountains, forests, grasslands, farms, cities, and islands, using sharp senses, flexible diets, and remarkable behavior to survive.

Geckos are small lizards with soft skin, big eyes, quick movements, and amazing climbing feet. Many geckos are active at night and can climb walls or ceilings using special toe pads.

Genets are small, catlike mammals with spotted coats, long ringed tails, pointed faces, and quick climbing skills. Most genets live in Africa, while the common genet also lives in parts of southern Europe and western Asia.

The Giant Centipede, Scolopendra gigantea, is also called the Amazonian Giant Centipede or Peruvian Giant Yellow-Leg Centipede. It is the world's largest well-documented living centipede and can reach about 30 centimetres in length. Verified native records come from northern South America and southern Caribbean islands. This flattened nocturnal predator hides in damp leaf litter, caves, rotting wood, rock cracks, and sheltered buildings. It uses powerful venom-delivering forcipules to capture insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, mice, and even bats.

Glowworm is a common name for several unrelated insects that produce visible light. In Europe and much of Asia, the best-known glowworms are firefly beetles in the family Lampyridae, especially wingless glowing females and predatory larvae. In New Zealand and parts of Australia, glowworms are luminous larvae of fungus gnats in the genus Arachnocampa. Beetle glowworms often shine to attract mates, while cave-dwelling fungus-gnat larvae use blue-green light above sticky silk threads to lure tiny flying prey.

Great horned owls are powerful owls with big yellow eyes, deep hooting voices, and tall feather tufts that look like horns. They live in many habitats and hunt at night with silent wings, strong feet, and sharp talons.

Hamsters are small, furry rodents known for round bodies, short tails, tiny paws, and stretchy cheek pouches. Many hamsters are active at night and like to explore, dig, store food, and run.

Harvestmen are arachnids in the order Opiliones, also called daddy longlegs in many places. More than 6,660 living species are scientifically described, and many more probably remain undiscovered. Some have thread-like legs many times longer than the body, while others are short-legged, armored, brightly colored, or almost mite-like. Unlike spiders, harvestmen have a broad connection between the front and rear body regions, no silk glands, and no venom glands. They occur on every continent except Antarctica.

Hedgehogs are small mammals with sharp spines, tiny faces, short legs, and curious noses. They are known for curling into a prickly ball when threatened and searching for food mostly at night.

Katydids are mostly nighttime insects related to crickets and grasshoppers. Many have very long antennae, leaflike green bodies, strong jumping legs, and loud mating calls that can make summer nights feel full of tiny hidden musicians.

Kinkajous are small rainforest mammals with golden-brown fur, big eyes, sharp claws, and long prehensile tails. They live mostly in trees at night and are sometimes called honey bears because they enjoy sweet foods such as nectar and fruit.

Kiwis are small flightless birds from New Zealand. They have long beaks, hair-like feathers, strong legs, tiny wings, and nostrils near the end of the beak, which helps them sniff for food on the forest floor.

The Kākāpō, Strigops habroptilus, is a large green flightless parrot found only in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is nocturnal, heavy-bodied, long-lived, and famous for an owl-like face, mossy camouflage, powerful climbing feet, and males whose low booming calls travel across valleys. Kākāpō survive only through intensive conservation on carefully managed predator-free islands and sanctuaries. The official Kākāpō Recovery population tracker listed 235 living birds in 2026.

Luna moths are large pale green moths from North America with long tail-like wing tips and beautiful eyespots. Adults live briefly, fly at night, and do not eat because their mouthparts are reduced or absent.

The Maned Wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus, is a tall, red-gold member of the dog family from South America. Despite its name and fox-like face, it is neither a true wolf nor a fox. Long black legs carry it through grasslands and savannas, huge ears help locate small prey, and an unusual omnivorous diet includes plenty of fruit. It is the only living species in the genus Chrysocyon.

The Margay, Leopardus wiedii, is a small spotted wild cat from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Its huge eyes, flexible ankles, broad paws, and remarkably long tail help it travel through forest trees at night. It resembles an ocelot but is smaller and more lightly built, with climbing adaptations that let it descend trunks headfirst and hang beneath branches.

Matamata turtles are strange-looking freshwater reptiles from northern South America. Their flattened heads, ragged skin flaps, rough shells, and long snorkel-like snouts make them resemble soggy leaves and bark on a muddy river bottom. Scientists now recognize two living species: the Amazon matamata, Chelus fimbriata, and the Orinoco matamata, Chelus orinocensis. Both are ambush predators that gulp prey using powerful suction.

The monocled cobra is a highly venomous snake from South and Southeast Asia. Its scientific name is Naja kaouthia, and its famous hood often carries a single round mark that looks like an old-fashioned monocle. This cobra is impressive, but it must always be admired from a safe distance.

Moths are winged insects in the order Lepidoptera, the same group as butterflies. About 160,000 moth species have been described, and scientists expect many more remain unnamed. Some are tiny leaf miners, others are wider than a hand, and together they fill habitats on every continent except Antarctica.

The mountain lion is a large, athletic wild cat of North and South America. Its scientific name is Puma concolor, meaning cat of one color. This secretive predator has more familiar English names than almost any other mammal, including cougar, puma, panther, and catamount.

Mice are small rodents with rounded ears, pointed noses, long tails, whiskers, and quick little feet. They live in many habitats around the world and use sharp senses to find food, avoid danger, and build cozy nests.

The common mudpuppy is a large aquatic salamander from lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds in eastern North America. Its scientific name is Necturus maculosus. It spends its entire life in water and keeps a striking set of reddish external gills even after reaching adulthood.

The mulga snake is a large, powerfully built venomous snake found across most of Australia. Its scientific name is Pseudechis australis. It is often called the king brown snake, but that name is misleading: it belongs to Australia's black-snake genus, not the true brown-snake genus.

Musk deer are small, shy hoofed mammals living in mountain forests and shrublands across Asia. Modern mammal checklists recognize seven living species in the genus Moschus. Despite their name and deer-like appearance, they belong to their own family, Moschidae, rather than the true-deer family.

The muskrat is a sturdy semiaquatic rodent native to North American wetlands. Its scientific name is Ondatra zibethicus. Although its name mentions a rat and people sometimes mistake it for a small beaver, the muskrat is a large member of the hamster-and-vole family with its own distinctive tail and lifestyle.

The natterjack toad is a small European amphibian with a thin yellow line down its back. Its short legs give it a quick, scurrying run, and male natterjacks make remarkably loud calls on warm spring and summer nights. These unusual toads need open sandy ground and sunny, shallow pools, so protecting both land and water is essential for their survival.

The North American beaver is the continent’s largest rodent and one of nature’s most influential builders. With orange cutting teeth, webbed hind feet, waterproof fur, and a broad flat tail, it is superbly equipped for life in and around water. By building dams in suitable streams, beavers create wetlands that become homes for many other species.

Ocelots are medium-sized wild cats with golden coats covered in dark chains, spots, and rosettes. They move quietly through forests, wetlands, and thick scrub from the southern United States through much of tropical America. Ocelots usually explore alone and do most of their hunting after sunset, when their sharp hearing, sight, and sense of smell help them find prey beneath dense vegetation.

Opossums are marsupial mammals from the Americas. The Virginia opossum is famous in North America for its pouch, hairless prehensile tail, many teeth, night activity, and amazing defense trick called playing possum.

Owls are amazing birds of prey with big eyes, quiet wings, sharp talons, and super hearing. Many owls are active at night, which makes them feel a little mysterious and very cool to learn about.

Pademelons are small, stocky relatives of kangaroos and wallabies that live in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands. They hide in dense forest and scrub during much of the day, then hop toward grassy edges to feed around dusk or at night. Their compact bodies, powerful hind legs, short thick tails, and pouch-raised joeys make them perfectly shaped for life among tangled plants.

Pangolins are shy scaly mammals from Africa and Asia. They have tough overlapping scales, long sticky tongues, strong claws, and a special habit of curling into a ball when danger comes near.

“Panther” is a common name with several meanings, not the scientific name of one animal species. Most people who say black panther mean a black-coated leopard from Africa or Asia or a black-coated jaguar from the Americas. Both cats still have rosette patterns beneath the dark pigment, and each keeps the body shape, behavior, habitat, and conservation status of its actual species.

A pill bug, often called a roly-poly, is a tiny land-dwelling crustacean rather than an insect. This page focuses on the common pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare. Its overlapping armored plates allow it to roll into a tight ball, while its modified breathing structures keep it tied to damp, sheltered places under leaves, logs, stones, mulch, and flowerpots.

The European pine marten, Martes martes, is a slender woodland mammal in the weasel family. Its chocolate-brown coat, pale yellow or cream throat patch, rounded ears, sharp claws, and long bushy tail suit a life spent running on the ground and climbing through trees. Pine martens are shy, mostly solitary omnivores whose menus change with the season.

The European polecat is a secretive mustelid with dark brown fur, a pale undercoat, white-edged ears, and a mask-like face. It hunts mostly after dark across woodlands, wetlands, fields, and farm edges. Polecats are close relatives of domestic ferrets and can release a powerful smell when threatened, but they are not skunks despite the nickname “polecat” sometimes being used for skunks in North America.

Possums are Australasian marsupials, not the same animals as American opossums. This page focuses on the common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula, one of Australia’s best-known nighttime mammals. Its pointed ears, thick coat, grasping feet, and brushy partly prehensile tail help it climb through forests, gardens, and city trees after dark.

Potoos are seven species of nocturnal birds in the family Nyctibiidae. They live from Mexico and the Caribbean through Central and South America. By day, mottled feathers and a stiff upright pose make a resting potoo resemble a broken branch. After dark, its enormous eyes, wide mouth, and quiet aerial attacks help it catch moths, beetles, and other flying insects.

Pottos are slow-moving nocturnal primates from African forests. They have large eyes, strong gripping hands and feet, woolly fur, and careful climbing skills that help them move quietly through trees at night.

Quolls are spotted carnivorous marsupials from Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. They have pointed noses, sharp teeth, long tails, and beautiful spotted coats that help make them one of the most interesting small predators in their habitats.

Raccoons are clever mammals known for their mask-like faces, ringed tails, curious paws, and nighttime adventures. They live in forests, wetlands, towns, and cities, and they can eat many different kinds of food.

Rats are medium-sized rodents with long tails, sharp senses, strong front teeth, and quick feet. Some rats live close to people, but many wild rats live in forests, fields, wetlands, and rocky places around the world.

Scorpions are predatory arachnids recognized by their grasping pincers and segmented tails tipped with venomous stingers. More than 2,500 species live in deserts, forests, grasslands, caves, mountains, and human-altered habitats across every continent except Antarctica. Most avoid people and hunt at night by detecting tiny vibrations, but all wild scorpions should be left untouched.

Screech owls are small owls with big eyes, bark-colored feathers, and surprisingly loud nighttime voices. Many screech owls hide in tree cavities during the day, then hunt insects, mice, and other small animals after dark.

Servaline genets are slender spotted mammals from Central Africa. They look a little catlike, but they are viverrids, relatives of civets and other small carnivores, with long tails, sharp senses, and secretive nighttime habits.

Skunks are small to medium mammals famous for black-and-white warning colors and a powerful spray defense. They usually give warning signs before spraying, which means smart animals know to back away.

The sloth bear, Melursus ursinus, is a shaggy insect-eating bear of South Asia. It is not a sloth and usually travels on the ground, although it can climb. Powerful curved claws tear open termite mounds, while closing nostrils, missing upper front teeth, a mobile snout, and long lips turn its mouth into a noisy insect vacuum.

Slow lorises are small nocturnal primates from Southeast Asia. They have big eyes, careful movements, strong gripping hands, and a rare venom defense, which means wild slow lorises should never be touched or kept as pets.

Land slugs are soft-bodied gastropod mollusks that have lost the large outer shell carried by a typical snail. Slug bodies evolved independently in several gastropod lineages, so the name does not describe one single branch of the family tree. Mucus, a muscular foot, retractable tentacles, and a hidden breathing pore help these animals explore damp habitats without legs.

The snowshoe hare is a North American member of the rabbit family named for its exceptionally large, fur-covered hind feet. It lives mainly in boreal and mountain forests with thick shrubs where it can hide and find food. Many populations change from brown in summer to white in winter, but every snowshoe hare remains active all year and plays an enormous role as food for lynx, owls, foxes, coyotes, and other predators.

Solenodons are rare, nocturnal Caribbean mammals with long flexible snouts, powerful claws, scaly tails, and venomous saliva. Only two species survive: the Hispaniolan solenodon on Hispaniola and the Cuban solenodon, or almiquí, in eastern Cuba. They are not rodents and are not true shrews, but belong to an ancient branch of the mammal group that also contains shrews, moles, and hedgehogs.

The stoat is a small, long-bodied predator in the weasel family. It is usually chestnut brown above and creamy white below, with a black tail tip that helps distinguish it from smaller weasels. In cold snowy regions many stoats grow a white winter coat called ermine, while their flexible bodies, sharp senses, rapid metabolism, and fearless hunting let them pursue rodents and rabbits through complex habitats.

The stone marten, also called the beech marten, is a quick and curious relative of weasels, otters, and badgers. It lives across much of Europe and Asia and is surprisingly comfortable near people. Explore how this adaptable night hunter climbs, scent-marks, eats a changing menu, and raises its tiny kits.

Sugar gliders are small tree-living marsupials with big eyes, soft fur, long tails, and stretchy gliding membranes between their front and back legs. At night, they glide between trees to find food.

Tarantulas are large, hairy spiders found in warm places around the world. They have eight legs, fangs, venom for catching prey, sensitive hairs, and many species live in burrows where they hide during the day and hunt at night.

Tarsiers are tiny primates with giant eyes, long hind legs, soft fur, and amazing leaping skills. They live in forests of Southeast Asia and hunt insects and small animals at night.

Tasmanian devils are stocky black marsupials with strong jaws, loud screeches, and bushy tails. Wild Tasmanian devils live naturally only on the island of Tasmania, where they search for food mostly at night.

A tawny frogmouth may be sitting in plain sight and still be almost impossible to spot. By day, this Australian bird stretches tall and blends into a branch; by night, it opens an astonishingly wide mouth to catch prey. It may resemble an owl, but it belongs to a different bird family with its own special skills.

Tawny owls are rounded woodland owls famous for deep hoots, dark eyes, and soft mottled feathers. They are common night birds in many parts of Europe and western Asia, where they live in woods, parks, and mature trees.

Tenrecs are a family of small mammals found naturally in Madagascar. Millions of years of evolution produced an amazing collection of shapes: some are furry, some are spiny, some burrow, and one swims. Although several look like hedgehogs or shrews, tenrecs belong to a different branch of the mammal family tree.

Toads are amphibians closely related to frogs. Many have dry-looking bumpy skin, short strong bodies, poison glands for protection, and a helpful appetite for insects, making them important little hunters in gardens, forests, and wetlands.

Vampire bats sound like storybook monsters, but the real animals are small, intelligent, and highly social. Only three bat species live entirely on blood, and all occur in the Americas. They do not suck like straws—instead, they make a tiny cut and lap the flowing blood while the host often remains asleep.

The Wild Boar, Sus scrofa, is a sturdy wild pig native across much of Europe and Asia and parts of North Africa. Humans have introduced wild boar, domestic pigs, feral pigs, and mixtures of them to many other regions, so the words wild boar and feral pig should not automatically be treated as identical. Wild boar use muscular snouts to root through soil, eat an extremely varied omnivorous diet, cool themselves in mud, and communicate with grunts, squeals, scent, and body posture. Females and young often live in groups called sounders, while mature males are usually more solitary outside the breeding season. The species is globally listed as Least Concern, although introduced populations can damage crops, habitats, and native wildlife.

Woodcocks are eight living species of plump, long-billed birds in the genus Scolopax and the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. Unlike many shorebird relatives, they spend much of their time in woodland, forest edge, scrub, and damp ground where mottled feathers hide them among leaves. The widespread Eurasian Woodcock and American Woodcock are the best studied, while six species live on islands or restricted parts of Asia and New Guinea. Woodcocks probe soil for earthworms and other small animals, become especially active around dusk or at night, and perform remarkable courtship flights. Exact size, calls, migration, breeding behaviour, and conservation status differ by species.