15 Wild Animals That Have Rarely Ever Been Seen #2

most animals have no problems revealing themselves to humans most people with needy dogs and cats know that all too well [Music] but did you know that some wild animals are either so rare or secretive that we rarely ever get to see them from a marine mammal on the edge of extinction to a tiny wild cat here are 15 wild animals that have rarely ever been seen number 15 black lion if you're wondering why after seeing an image of a black lion online no one can seem to find one that's because they don't exist not only is a black lion an animal that has rarely been seen it's one that has never been seen so how did the image of a black lion posted online in 2012 come to exist well it's actually quite simple in the timbavati region of south africa there is a small population of white lions white lions are born due to a genetic anomaly but only in that region because of over-hunting they are nearly extinct and only a few remain but how the photo of a black lion came about was through the manipulation of a photo of a white lion someone adjusted the color palette of the image to make it look like it was black instead the picture was actually of a white lion at the kango wildlife range in outshorn south africa sure an all-black lion could exist in the same way that albinism does but it so far hasn't been the case so we'll just have to be satisfied with our current big cat offerings before we go on like this video smash the subscribe button and click the notification bell right now or this centipede will crawl on your face when you're sleeping [Music] number 14. the elephant shrew for 50 years researchers believe that the somali elephant shrew had been wiped off the face of the earth this small mammal which looks more like a mouse than an elephant had not been seen since the 1970s so all we had to look at and remember of the creatures were 39 preserved specimens in natural history museums around the world but something good finally happened in 2020 baby steps right the elephant shrew which is a senghi and thought to only exist in somalia was found in the rocky landscapes of the horn of africa and the good news was it was thriving these unique little creatures are not something you see every day and they've played a pretty impressive game of hide and seek they are the size of a mouse with a trunk-like nose and they can run nearly 20 miles an hour strangely they are also distant relatives of the manatee elephant and aardvark how researchers found the elephant shrew was really quite impressive they were looking for other sengi types in the african coastal region bordering somalia eritrea and ethiopia they set up traps and spoke to locals those locals said that they had seen sengi's but no one knew if they were the long-lost sengis after opening the first trap lo and behold within it was the long lost elephant shrew number 13 the seneca white deer white deer aren't rare but they are definitely rarely seen it takes a unique set of circumstances for them to be born such as what happened with the white deer located at the old seneca munitions depot in new york seneca county there are 10 600 acres of land fenced in with chain-link fencing between six and eight feet tall much of these fences even have barbed wire along the top these fences aren't to keep deer in or out but they were put in place to keep nuclear munitions during the cold war safe as the fencing covers such a large area it makes it tricky for deer to enter or leave as a result a lot of inbreeding has taken place leading to up to 300 white deer living in the area and around adjacent farmland they feature a rare genetic variation that usually arises from defects in pigment cells often from excessive inbreeding so many of the deer around there are either all white or partially white you tend to find larger populations of such deer when there are physical barriers like lakes fences rivers and highways number 12 northern hairy nosed wombat with only around 251 known northern hairy nosed wombats left in the world there's little wonder why most people have never seen one through a combination of disease food competition and wild dog attacks you're more likely to come across a treasure chest of gold than you are a northern hairy nosed wombat in fact up until 30 were discovered in the 1930s in queensland most people believed they were extinct australian conservationists have been working hard ever since to boost their population in 2017 a joey was born at the richard underwood nature refuge near saint george it is the first successful arrival in the five years prior and wildlife officers had been watching the mother closely after 10 months the joey finally left the pouch much to the delight of the team the joey was the first to be born after a colony had been introduced to the refuge and they now have 11. the epping forest national park refuge is home to the remaining 240. the northern hairy nosed wombat is the rarer of the three wombat species the others are the southern hairy nosed wombat and the common wombat number 11 the salah it won't take you long to figure out why the salla from the greater mekong area is often called the asian unicorn they are just that rare that you'll probably never see one in person there are none in captivity and very limited numbers in the wild scientists have only ever seen salla in the wild four times they were first discovered in 1992 when the ministry of forestry of vietnam and the wwf carried out a joint survey in north central vietnam they stumbled across a skull with long straight horns it didn't mean much at first but the skull ended up being proof that it was the first large mammal to be discovered in more than half a century and one of the more special ones of the 20th century zella have two parallel hordes that can grow up to 20 inches and these horns feature on both genders they also have beautiful white markings on their faces large maxillary glands on their muzzles and exist around the anomite mountains of laos and vietnam their current status is critically endangered and the exact population is unknown we're gonna take a stab in the dark though and say it's pretty small number 10 the vaquita coming across any rare animal in the wild is nearly impossible but imagine the odds of stumbling across something of which only 10 exist that's the unfortunate reality for the vaquita the world's rarest marine animal that may not be around for much longer vaquita are critically endangered porpoises that grow up to 5 feet long and live in marine areas around the northern gulf of california they weren't discovered until 1958 and their prospects look even more grim all this time later unfortunately it's not uncommon for them to be caught and drowned in nets which is certainly not helping the problem this is often due to illegal fishing operations within mexico's gulf of california marine protected areas if you frequent these areas often be on the lookout for the vaquita they have dark rings around their eyes and dark patches on their lips their dorsal fin is also dark gray with pale gray sides and a white underside they tend to hang around shallow waters and swim away if boats approach we're just hoping that some of these vekitas can breed so we don't end up with yet another unfortunate extinction number nine the hooded grieb if you've been trying to work on your dance moves without much success then why not ask the hooded grieb for some advice this rare bird has an absolutely astounding set of dance moves all in the name of finding love the hooded grieb is a protected bird that is also critically endangered the footage of their pretty sweet dance moves was only made possible due to michael and paula webster's six-month film shoot in patagonia where they were gathering footage for tango in the wind the film is about the conservation efforts for protecting this unique bird which had only been discovered in 1974. they grow up to around 13 inches in length and they are found in isolated lakes in a remote parts of patagonia during the breeding season they live on basaltic lakes which are generally only used by non-breeding birds and during winter one of the many reasons why numbers are declining is because of the american mink and rainbow trout a single mink can take out an entire greed colony with dramatic consequences for future numbers number eight giant armadillo i have a feeling you won't believe me when i tell you that a 5 foot 110 pound animal that lives across south america is so hard to see that scientists had to install cameras just to find out more about him how can something so enormous be so elusive the giant armadillo is undoubtedly an enigma there aren't vast populations of them and they're quite sneaky and sly about how they live their lives what scientists do know is that they're threatened with extinction and are classed as vulnerable they are large scaly animals that have massive claws for digging that can grow up to eight inches long they dig deep burrows in the ground and only come out at night they tend to spend most of their time in the hulls that they have dug with openings around 13.8 inches in diameter if you were to stand any chance of coming across one which is unlikely they tend to live in a dozen or so countries across south america these include ecuador colombia brazil argentina bolivia and peru just to name a few they also have no preference for their habitat and will live in an open savannah or a tropical forest depending on what they feel like number seven aardwolf even though the art wolf population is fine and dandy that doesn't mean it's easy to come across them in the wild in fact because they are so shy it's pretty unlikely that you will the aardwolf whose name in afrikaans means earth wolf is a small insectivorous carnivore that kinda looks like a hyena it has yellowish fur with black stripes along with a bushy tail with a black tip there are two separate populations of the aardwolf with one living in east africa and the other in south africa one of the main reasons why you won't be likely to spot one of these critters is because they are nocturnal they live on africa's arid plains and aren't typically out and about when most people are they are also very shy so they'd be unlikely to approach humans anyway even though the aardwolf has a strong jaw and sharp teeth it does not use these for large prey they prefer an insect diet with their favorite snack being harvester termites they listen out for the rustle of them in the grass before lapping them up with their unusually sticky tongue number six lowland streaked ten rack because of deforestation and being hunted for food the lowland street ten wreck of northern and eastern madagascar is under threat with dwindling numbers it's unlikely for everyday people to ever stumble across them lowland street tenrec are a tenric species that lives in tropical lowland rainforests they grow up to around 6.8 inches and weigh no more than 10 ounces they're pretty easy to spot if you do happen to see one because they have yellow or brown stripes and black spiny pellets they even have quills that they can detach from their body as a form of defense street tenriks live in shallow burrows with their families and are active at night and during the day they largely feast on earthworms but their diet also includes other invertebrates if they feel like a change they breed from october to december and have up to eight young there is so much we don't yet know about the lowland streak tenrek due to how hard they are to find but what we do know is that they have a unique sound that is more commonly associated with snakes and insects but the sound doesn't come from their mouths but instead their quills number five star-nosed mole the star-nosed mole is not an animal that many people will ever get the privilege to see it's not because they're on the brink of extinction either for their numbers are actually relatively stable instead most people will never see this creature up close and personal because they spend 99 of their life underground most moles prefer dry soil but this one likes moist soil and shallow ponds so they're more likely to be swimming and diving underwater in between being underground in the dirt [Music] it just seems like they don't like our environment above the ground star-nosed moles are in a word unique they're about the size of a hamster and have a pink fleshy nose with 22 appendages that look a little bit like a star each of these has thousands of sensory receptors that allow them to figure out what things are they can touch around 12 items per second and quickly register what each item is if you do fancy trying to find a star-nosed mole that take a photo then you will find them along the united states east coast and toward the great lakes region number four marcor a dwindling population is the main reason why most people will struggle to spot a marcor around northern and western pakistan there are around 2 500 to 3 000 left in existence and these are spread out over 20 protected areas in pakistan markhor mainly live in wooded mountainous regions above 1 900 to 11 500 feet the entire world's population of them are only in pakistan the largest population of them are located in chitral goal national park where poaching has now been successfully controlled so there are at least 500 in this park alone there are as few as 50 in the cargo nulla there are four subspecies of marcor consisting of two species of flared horn and two of straight horn they grow up to around 242 pounds and are up to 6.2 feet long they mature at around 30 months old and will then have one or two babies every year from april to june even though there aren't large numbers of marcor you can buy a trophy license for eighteen thousand dollars around three licenses are issued every year and money goes back into local communities number three margay if you thought your domestic cat was unique then you haven't seen a margay very similar to an ocelot they are a small wild cat that lives in evergreen and deciduous forests around central and south america until around the 1990s they were illegally hunted which meant their population diminished they are now classed as near threatened and they continue to dwindle in numbers due to deforestation the margay is truly quite a special cat they have a small head huge eyes and they weigh up to around 8.8 pounds they also grow up to around 31 inches long with a tail of up to 20 inches unlike most other cats domestic included they only have two teeths margays are extremely able climbers and they can leap after monkeys and birds through the trees they may even spend their entire lives in trees while they live throughout central america and 24 of 32 states in mexico there's only around 0.01 to 0.05 marge per square kilometer of occupied space not only will their dwindling numbers mean they have rarely been seen but their lifestyle will as well these critters are nocturnal so when they aren't hanging around in trees they're taking long cat naps number two canada lynx most people can have an opportunity to spot a canada lynx they're not classed as endangered and they're even trapped for the international fur trade however if you live in the southern half of alaska and canada or somewhere where there are no snowshoe hares then they will rarely be spotted strangely the presence of canada links can depend on how many snowshoe hares are around [Applause] if there aren't any they move to somewhere with them and produce litters as hair populations increase and decrease so too does the canada lynx population they are a medium-sized north america cat that has long dense fur and triangular ears with cute little black tufts on the ends they look similar to bobcats and have long back legs to help them with navigating back slopes they stand at around 22 inches tall and weigh up to approximately 37 pounds this cute little guy is also nocturnal which means they're even less likely to spot on your travels they can be seen during the day but they are solitary animals that prefer to remain out of sight number one silly eugene bear the saily eugen bear hasn't been seen since at least the middle of the last century which made most people believe that this beautiful blonde bear was now extinct or is it in 2018 tourists who were trekking in the altai mountains in russia think they stumbled across one they were in the area where russia mongolia china and kazakhstan meet when they noticed a flat rock and the leg of a large fluffy animal 230 feet below them as they focused their attention on the leg the bear exposed more of itself and looked like the saliugem bear one of the last people to see one alive was a russian zoologist by the name of dr generic zebonski and there haven't been any possible sightings since not everyone is convinced that what the tourists saw was in fact the saliyujum bear though some think it might be a family member of the shan bear which is an endangered species in kazakhstan researchers would be heading to the general area that the bear was spotted to study it more closely we're hoping it was the saliyujum bear it's quite exciting to see any type of wild animal that you wouldn't usually see but imagine if you came across one that most people never get to see has that happened to you or someone you know also check out our other cool stuff showing up on screen right now see you next time

Channel: The Finest

Views: 61,182

Rating: 4.8583446 out of 5

Keywords: animals, wildlife, rarest animals, animal, rare animals, rare, wild, extinct animals, wild animals, unique animals, exotic animals, endangered animals, species, strange animals, weird animals, science, endangered species, extinct species, new, rarest, interesting facts, bizarre, strange, rarest animal, rare species, cute animals, dangerous animals, amazing animals, extinction, unbelievable, weird, discovered, discovery, mysterious, discover, documentary, insane animal, Ever Been Seen

Id: vRAwBb4zHt8

Length: 20min 51sec (1251 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2020