My country is a sub-equatorial tropical country, endowed by nature with a rich ecosystem with many endemic animal species. In particular, there are many species that have surprised researchers, here is a list of 8 most interesting and strange animals.
Freshwater puffer fish (strange fish)
The scientific name of the freshwater puffer fish is Chelolodon fluviatilis. They can swell up like a slippery ball so that no enemy can swallow them.
In my country, they are also known as blue puffer, leopard puffer. They usually appear in estuaries, mangroves, shrimp ponds from March to September every year.
Most puffer fish are wild-caught, so disease-carrying parasites are common. Therefore, when using it in life, you have to be extremely careful if you don’t want to have unfortunate things happen. However, the similarities between all species go no further than this.
Character
The general rule of thumb for keeping freshwater puffer fish is to keep them alone. They are extremely aggressive fish, and even a perch up to an inch long can kill fish larger than themselves.
They are equipped with a sharp beak to bite through the hard shells of mollusks. Therefore, they have the ability to cause extreme damage to their fellows in the tank.
Some of the puffer fish we will discuss can be kept with others of the same species. But you should always have a backup plan if you try to mix other fish with your puffer.
Natural living environment
Puffer fish has many species, each species will focus on living in different regions. Some species live in freshwater, some live in saltwater (sea).
Their main habitat is the bottom area, coral reefs, swamps, rivers, lakes, or can also be coastal waters, estuaries. Puffer fish are found in tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
They usually live in habitats with many mollusks. Because it is the main source of food, it also helps them not to have a long beak. Because when their beak will grow and grow until the top half is locked with the bottom half then the puffer fish will starve.
Mudfish
The scientific name of mudskipper is Periophthalmus schlosseri. Many people think they are an amphibian because they have bulging eyes like frogs and can move easily on land with their forelegs.
They are found in estuaries, downstream and marine areas in the tropics stretching from India, Southeast Asia to Australia.
Mudfish are most common along the estuary swamps, not exceeding 2 m of water. This fish lives in burrows in swamps. When the tide is low, the fish come out, especially on sunny days.
Characteristics of mudskippers
The fish has a very distinctive shape, which is not pleasing to the eye, if not very ugly. When fully developed, the body length can be up to 27 cm, the average weight is about 1 kg.
- The outer skin has a pale green, rough, viscous layer.
- The eyes are large, round, convex and the mouth is large, always open to breathe on the shore.
- The upper jaw has 2 canines, the lower jaw has only 1 tooth.
- The upper back has 2 large fins like an open butterfly,
- The pectoral part has 2 rather large pectoral fins, which are responsible for balancing when the fish moves on the muddy surface and climbs trees.
Habitat of mudskippers
Mudfish usually live in swampy areas of coastal mangrove forests of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Can Gio… of my country. With the structure of the respiratory system by lungs, they can move on land for a long time. When in danger, it will open its mouth and raise all its fins to scare the enemy.
Mud fish’s ability to climb trees
Mudfish have a feature close to the flying fish line that they can dive deep into the water for about 10 minutes.
They can then leap across the water and cling to tree trunks like climbing terrestrial animals.
Fish have a habit of digging about 3-4 burrows in muddy areas, wetlands to easily hide and hide from enemies.
In some cases, those burrows will be the place where fish choose to mate and lay eggs. At present, the reproductive breeding of this fish has not been studied.
What do Loi fish eat?
Mudfish are omnivores, so their food is usually: fry, shrimp, small shrimp and plankton living in muddy areas.
Purple Toad
The scientific name of the purple toad is Bombina maxima. When in danger, they will not run away, but will arch their backs and legs, or turn over to reveal their colorful abdomen to warn predators that they are very poisonous.
Purple Toad’s toxicity
Toads in general often have poison secreted from subcutaneous glands (toad sap). However to inform other predators. Purple toads often raise their front limbs, arch their back threateningly, and even turn their body over, revealing the color of the lower abdomen. This is a conditioned reflex, intended to warn the enemy.
If in contact with toad sap in the skin can cause allergies, burns… If ingested, it will cause cardiovascular effects such as lowering blood pressure, causing hallucinations and acute poisoning of the gastrointestinal tract.
Habitat, food and reproduction of Purple Toads
Purple toads like many other amphibians, usually live in warm, humid forest areas right next to ponds, lakes, rivers with slow flow. In the form of tadpoles, Purple Toads live on algae, fungi, and plants while adults, move to land and eat invertebrates (worms, insects, mollusks, etc.)
Purple toads breed in the spring, when the weather starts to warm up, it rains a lot, causing the humidity to gradually increase. The male toad will make a sound to attract the female, at this time the toads will move closer to each other, the female will let the male jump behind and perform mating behavior.
Next, the female will move to the wetland or the water’s edge, laying 40-100 eggs in large flocks. Depending on the temperature of the area, young tadpoles hatch after 3-10 days and grow gradually, lose their tails, grow legs in 6-8 weeks and move to land after 12-14 weeks of age.
Crooked frog
The Red-necked Frog (Limnonectes Dabanus) is an ancient amphibian left over from the Cretaceous period. They are endemic to Vietnam.
Its natural habitats are subtropical and tropical moist forests, rivers or swamps. The status of this species is not fully known.
Characteristics
- The top of the head has a very prominent bony part, the head is very large, the length is longer than the width (HL 31.5 mm, HW 28.29 mm). Eyes large and convex, eye diameter about 2/3 times snout length, nearly 2 times larger than the interorbital distance (ED 8.38 mm, SL 12.87 mm, UEW 4.09 mm).
- The muzzle is slightly blunt, protruding forward relative to the lower jaw. Muzzle not clear, cheek area concave and slightly oblique.
The nostrils are located closer to the tip of the snout than the eyes. The tympanic membrane is very prominent, larger than the eye diameter (TD 6.57 mm). - Sucking fingers and toes obtuse, free fingers. The toes have incomplete swimming membranes. The inner table tuber is long, without the outer table tuber, the bulb under the small joint, when folded along the body of the neck-table joint, touches the tip of the snout.
- On the back there are many intermittent folds of skin; skin ridge on the eardrum; The back, sides of the body and the upper extremities have nodules.
- The underside is milky white or yellowish with irregular dark streaks; hind limbs have dark, transverse streaks.
- Males have 2 vocal sacs.
Characteristic
This frog species is quite rare and the status of their population in the wild has not been fully studied, so in the IUCN Red List (2007) they are classified as DD (lack of data). It is a nocturnal species that hides during the day. Their main food is insects, earthworms and crabs.
Distribution
Vietnam: Their habitat is swamps or along streams in lowland mountains at an altitude of 150-700m above sea level. This species of frog is known to be distributed in the South of Vietnam (Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Dong Nai, Kien Giang).
During a recent survey, we recorded and photographed the crow’s-necked frog in the area of Ma Da, Dong Nai and Bu Gia Map National Park in Binh Phuoc province… World: Cambodia – (O’ Rang, Pichrada , Siem Pang), Thailand.
Value
An ancient frog left over from the Cretaceous period. Valuable for scientific research on ecology and behavior of species.
Status
Due to the exploitation of forests, they lose their habitat in the wild. It is necessary to take measures to protect the area where this species is distributed.
Worm snake
The worm snake (Ramphotypholops braminus) is a true snake but looks like a worm.
Due to the habit of living in the soil, the eyes of the worms degenerate, leaving only a small dot that has almost no vision effect (so many places also call them blind snakes). Worm snakes have a dark brown color similar to the color of earthworms but darker.
Worm snakes are found in many parts of the world, often preferring temperate climates. Their favorite place is where there is a lot of rotten wood and wet ground, near ant and termite nests. It is very easy for farmers to come across worms when hoeing in the field.
Although their size is very small, many people are afraid of this snake. In folklore, it is often rumored that worm snakes are extremely poisonous, just being bitten is sure to kill.
In fact, it is not, the worm snake is a completely harmless animal to humans. Their mouths are too small and do not have fangs to bite. They are also not venomous because they do not need to hunt. The main food of worms is ant eggs and termite eggs.
They live often underground, so the eyesight of worms is completely impaired, their eyes cannot see and mainly use their tongue to navigate.
Through this tongue, they can “taste” the air and assess humidity, movement in the air, odors of other organisms, and where food is coming from.
Worm snakes are unisexual, that is, there are no males, all worms found in the wild are female. They lay eggs and the young that hatch from the eggs are also female.
Like worms, worm snakes are useful to humans. They dig the soil to make the soil looser, more nutritious and breathable, beneficial for plants.
Spotted flying gecko
Spotted flying geckos (Dacro maculates) have broad skin webbing between their legs. In addition, they can fly from tree to tree to find food and avoid predators.
This species of gecko can also disguise itself in the environment in a very sophisticated way.
Spotted chameleons are territorial and should be kept individually. They tend to be stressful, so, like other chameleons. They are more suitable pets to be watched than to much impact.
Spotted chameleons, like most chameleons, are territorial; If two males are kept together in captivity, they will change color and sometimes attack each other. In the wild, this is part of the ritual where the male chooses the female’s mate.
These lizards have exceptionally long tongues, they can grab prey from mid-air.
Big-headed turtle
The big-headed turtle (Platysternum megacephalum) has a very large head and an oversized tail. In particular, this big head cannot be retracted into the shell. They are one of the ugly turtles in the tortoise family.
In addition to Vietnam, they are also distributed in many countries such as China, Laos, Thailand… Big-headed turtles live in forest creeks, where the water is clear and slow flowing.
During the day they hide under rocks or sunbathe on the banks of streams, they go looking for food at dusk or at night.
Their food is invertebrates, mollusks or small crustaceans. An adult turtle can reach a shell size of more than 20 cm.
Short-legged lizard
Short-legged lizards (Lygosoma quadrupes) have small, almost useless legs. Their main mode of movement is to slither like a snake.
They also live in many Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia… They are often found in rotting logs and feed on termites and larvae.
Characteristics
This lizard has a rather small size, the body length is 15cm, the tail length is 1.5 times the body length. The limbs have shrunk greatly, but still have five fingers.
The legs are very thin because it is barely strong enough to support their body. The body has many shiny thin stripes, extending from the top of the head to the end of the tail.
Feet have small scales and sharp claws. There are 2 plates on the nose that are in contact with each other, the large, whole frontal plate, the two small front plates, separated by the seam between the forehead plate and the frontal plate.
The nostrils are at the posterior border of the nasal plate, in contact with the posterior nasal plate. The lower eyelid is covered with small scales. There are about 26-28 rows of scales surrounding the body, wrinkled, glossy, iridescent in the sun. 58 scales along the back from the back of the nape to the anterior part of the thigh base.
Characteristic
The most representative species of burrowing among lizards of the genus Lygosoma. Usually found burrowing and feeding in the vegetation of the forest and occasionally encountered in rotting logs, residential areas or farmland.
Their diet consists of termites and larvae. They are active during the day. Each spawns from 2 or 3 eggs, the eggs hatch after five weeks.
In the process of sharing because of limited knowledge and weak grammar. Looking forward to your feedback, thanks!