23 Strange Animals That Are Almost Too Weird To Actually Exist

Borneo Ninja Slug shoots chalky “love darts” at potential mates which pierce and inject the proper hormones to make them hot and horny. The “ninja” slug was discovered in 2010 in the mountains in Malaysia. The sheet-like mechanism these slugs use isn’t 100% effective but just “increases the chances of reproduction”. They wrap their tail (which is 3 times the length of its head) around its body when it’s inactive.

The Chromodoris willani is a sea slug that looks like a creature from the world of Pokemon. This sea slug lives in the Western Pacific Ocean, in the areas from Indonesia to the Philippines and ranges in color. The Chromodoris willani shown in this picture is in the middle of the color spectrum: the creatures can range from a dark blue color to a nearly transparent white. While this is true, they all have discontinuous stripes covering their body as well as those odd feeler-like outcroppings that appear to sparkle in the water.

Cinereous Mourner is one of many birds found in the subtropical lowland forests of South America, the species lives in an area where birds tend to suffer very high losses to nest predators. The cinereous mourner, however, has a handy trick up its wing. It does a rollicking (rolling, actually) sendup of a toxic, spiny caterpillar (Megalopyge) that also calls the area home. The cinereous mourner assumes a particularly clever form of the art known as Batesian mimicry. In this form of biological trickery, the docile organism takes on the characteristics of a threatening or dangerous organism, thereby making itself highly unattractive to prospective predators.

The False zokor (Myospalax aspalax) is a species of rodents that are found in China and Russia. It leads to a very secretive life, spending all of its time underground where it zipps through its intricate maze-like burrows. For this reason, very little is known about its behavior. It’s about 19-26 cm in length with a gray/dirty cream velvety coat. It's not blind but relies more on its well-developed senses of smell and hearing to navigate its dark habitat. The zokor is built to dig with large claws (up to 3 cm in length) that it uses much like shovels to clear a path in the dirt.

The Lake Titicaca water frog is the largest truly aquatic frog in the world. It has a broad, flattened head with a round snout and large eyes. The most distinctive feature of the Titicaca water frog is the extremely loose skin which hangs from its neck, legs, and stomach, giving it a rather ugly appearance.

With their spiky bristles between their fur and distinct black and yellowish stripes, the lowland streaked tenrec mostly resembles a cross between a hedgehog and an oversized bee. Its appearance is even more unusual because of the spiky yellow bristles around their head but gives them great camouflage while foraging on the forest floor. When a predator is foolish enough to go for the tenrec, it will be sure it gets a mouthful of spiky spines that detach from the tenrec's body. Interestingly, these little mammals have such a low body temperature that they do not require a scrotum to cool their sperm, as is very common in mammals.

Miniature Melo is actually a species of bubble snail which looks like something that fell from the heavens and landed in the ocean. The oval bubble-shaped shell is thin and fragile and is actually too small to contain the soft body of the snail. Therefore, the colorful snail has to rely on swimming and camouflage to avoid being eaten. It does have one other trick up its sleeve though… the Miniature Melo eats small little (we must be talking really little) toxic worms and incorporates the poison into their tissues as a defense mechanism. It only grows to be about 1/2 an inch in length.

The Panda Ant an unusual species of insect. Their name derives from the obvious resemblance to a panda in its markings. This remarkable insect is not even an ant. The Panda Ant is actually a variety of wingless wasp. They were first discovered in 1938. Very little is known of this little-seen insect. They are only known to exist in coastal regions of Chile. Their sting is exceptionally powerful for their size. They have been seen to bring down animals as large as cows with only a few dozen stings.

Patagonian Maras may look more like giant rabbits or small deer, but they are rodents. They are endemic to the open grasslands and shrubland steppes of Argentina. They have small, compressed feet that make them resemble hooves from a distance, and longer ears resembling those of a rabbit.

The Picasso Bug is one of the approximately 450 known species of shield-backed bug. They are a medium-sized species of shield-backed bug. They are generally oval shaped. Though sometimes mistaken for a beetle, the Picasso Bug is actually a true bug. This dazzlingly patterned insect is distinguished from beetles by their extended thorax. This effectively forms a shield over their abdomen and wings. They feed on the nectar and fluids of a wide variety of plants within their endemic range.