I’m sure you’ve heard of animals that are rare, or even endangered, but have you heard of an animal with only ten left of its kind? Or animals that look like hybrids, or something else entirely? Well, from the endangered to the invasive, here you’ll learn about three different species from across the animal kingdom! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… Uncommon Animals! The first animal we’re learning about is the vaquita. Let me explain; vaquitas are basically a dolphin’s smaller, rarer cousin, as they’re a type of porpoise. They live in the Northern Gulf of California in Mexico. They weigh 120 pounds and are roughly five feet long.They’re so endangered that there’s only around ten to thirteen left in the wild! The reason they’re so rare is because of illegal fishing, which is devastating to populations that were already small. Our second animal is the raccoon dog. Despite its name and its appearance, they are not in fact related to raccoons, being a part of the canid family. They are also called Tanuki, and live in the far east of Asia, as in east Siberia, North and South Korea, Japan, north of China and Vietnam. These little fluffy guys are two to four feet long and weigh roughly 16.5 pounds. Unfortunately, raccoon dogs are not the thing you would want as a pet. They are invasive species to most of Europe and carry life-threatening diseases. The last animal is the lyrebird. They’re called that because of their tails, which are curved in a way so that it looks like that said instrument. This ground bird weighs two pounds and is roughly three to four feet long. They live in Australia and are known for mimicking sounds. There are two species of lyrebird- Albert’s lyrebird and the superb lyrebird. Albert’s lyrebird has a population around 3500, and the superb lyrebird has a population roughly less than ten thousand. Thankfully, these animals aren’t on the endangered lists anymore, but they were for a while due to habitat loss. Photo from wikimedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrebird
Uncommon Animals
