Amazing Endangered Animals

When an animal is referred to as endangered, this usually means there is a danger of the species from disappearing from the Earth if situations do not improve. Those that may soon be endangered are called threatened. If an animal is not seen in the wild for 50 years, it is considered extinct. Rare animals are those with small populations that may become endangered. Some of the most amazing, unique and odd animals on the planet are endangered.

  1. Olm

    • The olm is an aquatic amphibian with a long, snake-like body that lives in subterranean waterways in Italy and Croatia. It is sometimes nicknamed "human fish" because of its white, human-like skin. The olm can live to be 100 years old and can go 10 years without feeding if it needs to. The blind animal has gills and stays underwater for its entire life, unlike other amphibians.

    Aye Aye

    • Though having some bat-like features like bulging eyes, large ears and thin fingers, the aye aye is actually a primate. Also like bats, it uses echolocation to find prey. It makes spherical nests with one hole for entering and exiting. The aye aye uses it long, slender middle finger to extract bugs from holes in trees. In its native Madagascar, many people believe it to be demonic and kill it on sight.

    Angler Fish

    • The large-mouthed, spiny-toothed deep sea fish with the head lure is actually the female angler fish. The male is a blob-like animal one-twentieth the size of the female. The male links itself to to the female by its teeth, and nutrients pass through the female into the male. The male eventually atrophies, losing its eyes, internal organs and then its life. But, the male transfers sperm into the female so it can birth new angler fish.

    Sloth

    • All sloths have three toes, but some only have two claws. They can move quickly when hunting in packs and can use their claws for slashing. The slow movement behavior is mostly to avoid predators like the hawk. Most of a sloth's life is spent hanging, and thus up to 600 species of bacteria and plants will grow on them at any given time. The sloth often feeds on these deposits, especially algae. They can also rotate their heads 270 degrees.