how strange it is to be anything at all

See the First-Ever Photos of Cozumel’s Mysterious Dwarf Fox

Many believed the tiny fox had gone extinct

Strange things happen to animals when they colonize islands. Some of them get larger, like the enormous rabbit Nuralagus rex of ancient Menorca, while others get smaller, like the dwarf fox of Cozumel. This mysterious species of gray fox is estimated to be only around 60 to 80 percent the size of its larger mainland brethren. Fossils indicate it first arrived on the Mexican island around 5,000 years ago, predating the arrival of humans...

via prev

"I'm sorry," Xie Lian said. "Something like this has to be made clear."

Mysterious Web-Footed “Ghost Dog” Caught on Camera

The elusive canids deliberately avoid humans

Deep in the Amazon rainforest lives a seldom-seen beast known as the short-eared “ghost dog.” There’s an air of mystery surrounding the wild dogs because it uses its keen sense of smell and hearing to avoid humans, which means information about them is scant—for example, there are only four museum specimens in existence. Now, new research published in the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation is finally shedding some light on these cryptic canids. True to their name, the short-eared dogs (Atelocynus microtis) have small round ears, short legs, long bushy tails, and partially webbed paws (similar to other canids in the Amazon). According to previous research, they primarily feed on fish, insects, and small mammals, but have also shown a predilection for scavenging the cadavers of larger animals...