You may feel like you live with weird creatures. You have pets that are just plain neurotic or have some sort of strange habits. You may even have teenagers, and have come to suspect that they are creatures from another planet. But, there are some really weird creatures that share your planet that you might not even know exist.
Aye-Aye
If you have ever traveled to Madagascar, then you may have encountered this strange creature. It looks like a cross between a rodent, a bat, and a relative of E.T., the alien who had fingers that got into everything and made big messes for the humans to clean up.
One of these little guys can be picked up with one hand. They are actually considered the world’s smallest primate, although they attack trees much like a woodpecker, in order to ferret out the grubs.
Tapir
The tapir is called a browsing mammal, presumably because they can browse almost anywhere for their food, including the bottom of a riverbed. The have to forage a lot, because it is estimated that they can eat up to 85 pounds of vegetation in a single day.
A very strange animal, they look like a cross between an ant eater and a rhinoceros. Young tapir’s appear to have hung around one too many zebras. Under normal circumstances, they will do everything possible to avoid a potentially harmful situation. They are likely to submerge themselves and hide at the bottom of that river, until the danger has passed. But, if cornered, their bite is definitely worse than their bark. A zookeeper’s arm was severed, when she got between a momma tapir and her baby.
Philippine Tarsier
The tarsier is so ugly, it is almost cute. This fuzzy little primate can rest in the palm of a grown man’s hand. It most dominating features are the eyes. Big, round orbs take up half of this weird animal’s face.
At one time, this little mammal was actually sold to tourists as some sort of pet. Even though this practice has ceased, the tarsier is still on the verge of extinction. The tarsier is in danger, because their natural habitat is slowly being wiped out by civilization. The main food source is the insects that they find in the forest, and it is being cut down to make room for more people.