Terrifying Wildlife Encounters: 46 Disturbing Things Caught on Camera

If you’re reading this, it means that you already saw at least a few bizarre-looking beings. (Feeling alright so far?) And if you’re wondering why in the world they look the way that they do, you’re not alone; we were curious, too, so we got in touch with Prof. Robert Montgomerie, hoping to get an answer.

The professor explained that in general, the ‘appearance’ of plants and animals is shaped by natural and sexual selection, as well as simple genetic drift. “These various influences are always constrained to some extent by an organism's past history and selection can only work with the variation that is available to it.”

We were also wondering if the arguably weirder-looking beings usually live in more isolated areas—deeper in the ocean, for instance, or somewhere in a remote location in the jungle—as it doesn’t seem that people stumble upon something this awe-inspiring too often.

“To me there are lots of weird-looking plants and animals in my own backyard. I expect that we think that things look weird if we do not see them often, or ever. I thought that a lot of birds and mammals in Australia looked weird before I actually went there for several months; I expect that Australians did not find them to be weird-looking at all,” Dr. Montgomerie shared.

The professor is probably right saying that certain species don’t look odd at all, when you familiarize yourself with them. But the thing is, there seems to be quite a few creatures we might not know that well, or at all, for that matter.

Take the beauty found in northern Oregon, US, for instance: just a couple of weeks ago, on June 3rd, 2024, some passersby on the beach stumbled upon a ginormous 7.3-foot-long creature washed ashore. What was first considered an ocean sunfish, or Mola mola, was later found to be a newly discovered species, known as the Mola tecta or the hoodwinker sunfish.

The New York Post reports that with the help of photographs, measurements, and tissue samples, it was researcher Marianne Nyegaard who identified the marine animal. She also suggested that it may be the largest specimen of the kind ever sampled.

Just a few days after the hoodwinker sunfish was found in Oregon, the news about another discovery regarding a different kind of unusual creature broke – remains of a fossil of the smallest known great ape were found in Germany, dating to roughly 11m years ago.

Known as Buronius manfredschmidi, the ape was estimated to have weighed just 10kg and was likely the size of a human toddler, which makes it far smaller than other hominids. According to Prof. Madelaine Böhme, a palaeontologist at the University of Tübingen leading the research, it’s unclear why the species was as small as it was, The Guardian reports. But one version is that its size allowed it to occupy a different ecological niche from its larger counterparts, while another suggests that the Buronius manfredschmidi simply represents a more ancestral version of great apes.

Discussing other odd-looking creatures, Prof. Montgomerie shared that the ones he thought looked rather weird when he saw them for the first time were the anglerfish (Linophryne arborifera), shoebills (Balaeniceps rex—a bird), glass frogs, goblin sharks, and mole rats. “I expect that they would no longer seem weird if I studied them for a while,” he added.

While some of Mother Nature’s creations are clearly more visually appealing than others, they are the way that they are for a reason, and they’re arguably all necessary in the animal kingdom.

We discussed the importance of every being—no matter how adorable or creepy-looking—with Dr. Montgomerie, who pointed out that it is a rather philosophical question that might depend on who’s answering it and how one defines what is important.

“From a biodiversity perspective, every species is important both for maintaining the ‘natural’ order and for the possible, as yet unknown, benefits to mankind,” he pointed out. “If your only interests are in human welfare, there are probably lots of species that contribute nothing to most people. Again, that’s a philosophical point of view as I feel that my own well-being is aligned with the preservation of all species and is diminished every time one of them goes extinct. I expect that that is far from the majority view. I agree with Thoreau who said 160 years ago ‘in wildness is the preservation of the world’.”

If you found this list adorable, for some reason (or curiosity-inducing, at least), rather than off-putting, you might want to check out some similar lists on Bored Panda next, such as these horrific things Mother Nature has produced or these things some people would call scary as h**l. Happy scrolling!

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