10 World’s Smallest Creatures

HuffPost Green posted the world’s smallest creatures. The tiny animals are just so beautiful to see and touch (except for the lizard that looks like a snake, sorry I am not fond of lizards).

Here are the top 10 tiniest animals/creatures in the world.

1. Red-Eyed Tree Frog – The tiny red-eyed tree frog uses its alarmingly red eyes and webbed orange paws to assert its presence against its predators and to appear highly venomous.


2. Small-Eared Shrew – Believed to be extinct soon after its first sighting, three small-eared shrews were recently rediscovered near the San Martín Tuxtla volcano in Mexico.

3. Togian White-Eye – Discovered in 1997, the Indonesian Togian white-eye is highly endangered and meets the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species qualifications but has yet to be added to the list.

4. Hedgehog – The hedgehog received its name because of its unusual foraging habits. The prickly creature scavenges through hedges to find its food all the while grunting like a hog.

5. Tiny Mandarin Fish – These colorful, neon fish are one of the smallest ocean spawners and possess one of the most distinctive mating patterns. Every evening, twenty minutes after sunset, the tiny mandarin fish gather and release thousands of eggs into the ocean.

6. Kangaroo Rat – While not actually a rat but rather a relative of the gopher, the kangaroo rat currently faces extinction. A native of the United States, the kangaroo rat travels around by hopping like a kangaroo, hence its namesake.

7. Legless Lizard – Discovered in January 2008, the Brazilian legless lizard possesses a snake-like appearance and vestigial nubs in place of legs.

8. Mouse Lemur – Endemic to Madagascar, the teacup sized mouse lemur has remained an elusive inhabitant of the African island. It is the smallest primate in the world, standing at two and a half inches long.

9. Pika – The Pika, a miniature cousin of the rabbit, may be the first animal in the lower 48 states to be listed as an endangered species due to climate change. Pika are highly sensitive to variations in temperature and any exposure to temperatures great than 78 degrees can be lethal to the chinchilla-like creature.

10. Kihansi Spray Toad – The Kihansi spray toad is the tiniest creature in our lineup at three quarters of an inch long. Indigenous to Tanzania, 95 percent of this tiny toad’s habitat has been depleted by a nearby hydropower initiative, leaving the species only able to breed in captivity.

You may vote on your favorite world’s tiniest animals at HuffPost Green.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Tags: Animals