10 Bizarre Animals That Are Secretly Cute
The next time a particular aspect of your own appearance gets you down -- like an expanding waistline, or a larger than normal nose -- remember what our mom used to say to us as children: "You could've been born as a star-nosed mole, or a blobfish. Now shut up and eat your tacos!" (Love ya, mom!)
Joke's on you mom -- we kind of think these so-called ugly animals are kind of cute. Probably cuter than fatty big-nosed us. (Sigh. So many therapy bills...) Anyway, see what we mean about so-strange-they're-cute animals below.
- 1
Axolotl
The Axolotl is one weird-looking salamander, though they are sometimes referred to as the "Mexican Walking Fish." Let's pretend that isn't terrifying and ooh and ahh over the cute little guy above.
- 2
Blobfish
Blobfish live at incredible depths in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Since they literally live under tons of pressure, their bodies are jellylike bulks without muscle, which allows them to float about with ease. Why they look like grumpy filing clerks is anyone's guess.
- 3
Angora Rabbit
Rumor (and history) has it that French sailors first encountered these incredibly hairy rabbits in the port of Angora, Turkey. Whether this is true or not, a fun thing to do is rub one all over the face of a person with asthma. Just kidding. Never do that.
- 4
Aye-Aye
These bug-eyed lemurs are only found on the island of Madagascar and are reclusive tree-dwellers, which is nice, because can you imagine one sneaking up next to you while you're trying to relax on the patio? Madagascar vacation ruined.
- 5
Platypus
Just to make it a little bit weirder, the platypus is the only oviparous mammal. Fun fact of the day: oviparous means it lays eggs.
- 6
Star-Nosed Mole
The star-nosed mole has 22 tentacles around its nose that basically act as its eyes. Fortunately, they spend most of their time underground, which is nice, because can you imagine one sneaking up next to you while you're trying to relax on the patio? Canada vacation ruined.
- 7
Sun Bear
Sun bears are the smallest bears. In fact, one was eaten by a python once. While the bear was inside the python, that snake was officially the scariest animal on the planet.
- 8
Chinese Giant Salamander
The Chinese giant salamander is the biggest salamander in the world. Is it big enough to eat a sun bear? Probably not.
- 9
Leafy Sea Dragon
The Leafy sea dragon uses their leaf-like "limbs" as a protective camouflage. Despite its name, you shouldn't try to order it at your local sushi restaurant.
- 10
Tarsier
The tarsier's eyes are about the same size as their brain, but they must be bigger than their stomach -- did you see how much food he got at the buffet???? No, but seriously, their eyes are the same size as their brain.