The Ugliest Animals

	The vampire bat feeds on mammalian blood. Their primary source is sleeping livestock. Their sharp teeth and light frame allow them to feed for up to 1/2 hour while perched on their victim without waking it. They need to feed every two days to survive. Read more.....
	One of the most famous and bizarre animals is the Aye-aye, found only in Madagascar. The Aye-aye combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out. Read more.....
	So what if the monkfish has an extremely large tooth-filled mouth, a peculiar flattened body, and loose, slimy skin? Millions of people in Europe, Japan, and in the United States love to consume this large, ugly, bottom-dwelling fish; it tastes like lobster. Just don't look before you dine. Read more.....
	Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America. They may eat insects, small lizards and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves. Sloth fur also exhibits specialized functions: the outer hairs grow in a direction opposite from that of other mammals. In most mammals, hairs grow toward the extremities, but because sloths spend so much time with their legs above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the extremities in order to provide protection from the elements while the sloth hangs upside down. Read more....
	The Tasmanian devil is frightening, creepy, and dreadful to look at. It's the size of a small dog, and its body resembles that of a small bear. The animal is black or brownish and has a white throat patch and white spots on the sides. The teeth are crowded together to give the mouth a powerful look. The upper incisors are rather long, sharp and, well, devilish. Read more.....
	The Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in Africa. The name comes from the four large wart-like tusks found on the head of the warthog, which serve the purpose of defense when males fight. A grouping of warthogs is called a sounder. Common warthog sounders are usually composed of 3 to 10 animals, although groups as large as 30 have been reported. Read more....
	The Wild Turkey is native to North America. Adult Wild Turkeys have a small, featherless, reddish head, that can change to blue in minutes; a red throat in males; long reddish-orange to greyish-blue legs; and a dark-brown to black body. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles; in excited turkeys, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, becoming engorged with blood. Males have red wattles on the throat and neck. Each foot has four toes, and males have rear spurs on their lower legs. Turkeys have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. Turkeys have between 5,000 and 6,000 feathers.
	The red-lipped batfish is an unusual looking fish found on the the Galapagos Islands. Red-lipped batfish are closely related to rosy-lipped batfish which are found near Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica. Both fish species look and behave very similarly to one another. Batfish are not good swimmers; they use their pectoral fins to "walk" on the ocean floor. When the batfish reaches adulthood, its dorsal fin becomes a single spine-like projection that lures prey.
	The scorpion fish includes many of the world's most venomous species. The family is a large one, with hundreds of members. They are widespread in tropical and temperate seas, but mostly found in the Indo-Pacific. General characteristics include a compressed body, ridges and/or spines on the head, one or two spines on the operculum, and three to five spines. The dorsal fin will have 11 to 17 spines and the pectoral fins with 11 to 25 rays. The spines of the dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins all have venom glands at their bases. Most species are bottom-dwellers that feed on crustaceans and smaller fish. Most Scorpion fish, such as the stonefish, wait in disguise for prey to pass them by before swallowing, while lionfish often ambush their prey. When not ambushing, lionfish may herd the fish, shrimp, or crab in to a corner before swallowing. Scorpion fish feed by opening their mouth, then their gills a fraction of a second apart, creating suction.
	The Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat, Old World Sucker-footed Bat, or simply Sucker-footed Bat is endemic to Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is named for the presence of small suction cups on its wrists and ankles. They roost inside the rolled leaves of palm trees, using their suckers to attach themselves to the smooth surface.