The world is full of incredibly strange animals, and zoos are a great place to see many of those creatures. Sure, we expect to see tigers, lions, and elephants, but some zoos offer a glimpse into Earth’s crazy biological diversity. At some zoos, you can see some really strange animals, and the sight of them will stay with you forever.
Here, we’ll explore ten incredibly creepy animals that actually exist and how they are being conserved and studied by zoos around the globe. Some of these animals seem like they were made up, but they are very real—and for the price of a simple zoo admission, you can see them for yourself!
10. Aye-Aye, Captain!
The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is one of the most bizarre primates on Earth. This little animal is native to Madagascar, and because its only natural habitat is on the island nation, it has a very limited range.
Once you see one, you will never forget it. It has a perpetually shocked look with big, bright eyes, perfect for existing at night, as the aye-aye is the world’s largest fully nocturnal primate.
Beyond the face, it’s the aye-aye’s long and creepy middle finger that will make you remember it forever. It uses that middle finger to tap on trees and extract insects for food. Imagine being a little bug when a big creepy primate comes by, tapping until it slides its long, thin middle finger into your home and plucks you out for a midnight snack. Yikes!
The aye-aye is extremely endangered in Madagascar. But several zoos around the country have had them on exhibit in recent months, including Denver, San Diego, Omaha, and the Bronx.
9. They’re NAKED Down There?!
If you’ve ever seen the cartoon Kim Possible, then you no doubt remember Rufus, the naked mole rat. The true story of the real naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is even more bizarre!
They were only first discovered in the late 19th century in the horn of East Africa. There, these nearly hairless rodents live underground for their entire lives. They are blind, their skin is translucent, and they work in massive colonies much like bees and ants—but they are mammals!
Weirdly, naked mole rats are one of the only “eusocial” mammals anywhere in the world. They live together in massive groups underground for relative safety. Within those groups, only one female member actually breeds. The rest of the females and all the males are constantly burrowing out dirt for food and the survival of the colony.
Because of what they do and how tiny they are, naked mole rats are not commonly seen in zoos. Thankfully, there is one place you can see them: the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. They have multiple live camera feeds set up so you can watch these naked mole rats burrow and work far underground!
8. A Venomous Shrew
The solenodon is a very venomous and very rare shrew that lives only in two places: one species makes its home on the island of Cuba (Atopogale cubana), while another species (Solenodon paradoxus) calls the nearby island of Hispaniola as its home. These animals are highly endangered and also extremely unique.
They are mammals, but they have venomous saliva. They are very primitive, and their presence on the islands has allowed their evolutionary traits to make them one of the few venomous mammals on Earth. They use their long snouts to hunt out insects, at which point they shoot venomous saliva through a groove in their front teeth to kill and feast on their prey.
Pound for pound, considering how big these little guys are, they are actually pretty venomous. While they are not lethal to humans, lab studies have indicated that their venom can kill mice and rats under the right conditions. Since they are so entirely rare, there is a lot of pressure to keep them alive.
Zoos and conservation societies in both Cuba and the Dominican Republic have stepped up efforts to alert locals not to mess with their habitats. The Dominican Republic’s national zoo, ZOODOM, holds a few solenodons in its collection.
7. A Very Rare Find
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a duck-billed semi-aquatic mammal that is native to only Australia. The platypus is a very bizarre kind of mammal that lays eggs and has venomous spurs on its hind legs that it can use to defend itself and capture its prey.
The platypus is very sensitive to its environment, too. Only a few platypuses have ever made it to be housed alive in Australian zoos throughout history, and fewer still have lived to make it outside of Australia for any length of time.
In 2019, the San Diego Zoo announced that it had secured two platypuses to be put on display in southern California. It is the first time a platypus has been shown in a zoo outside Australia in nearly a century. It’s a big deal for conservation activists and fans of strange animals alike!
6. A Creepy Looking Shark
The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is a horrifying-looking creature that lives thousands of feet down in the sea. It has a very long, very haphazardly designed snout to go along with multiple rows of messy, sharp, needle-like teeth. The snout is covered with special organs that help these goblin sharks locate their prey.
Since sunlight doesn’t penetrate down there, they must use this non-visual help to figure out the electric fields being sent out by other fishes. In turn, their long and terrifying teeth are visible even when the shark’s mouth is fully closed. There are so many teeth in its mouth that they don’t all fit inside, even when they chomp down.
Goblin sharks are really interesting to scientists because they live so far down in the ocean’s depths. Since their habitat is pretty much impossible to observe their behavior for long periods, scientists have mostly been in the dark over how goblin sharks feed, swim, communicate, migrate, and mate.
You can visit the aquarium in Yokohama, Japan, to see a real, live goblin shark and be freaked out in person by its unsettling appearance.
5. The Creepiest Salamander Ever
The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a very unique type of salamander that retains its juvenile form throughout its life and can regenerate parts of its body like new.
Unlike other salamanders, it remains in the water and lives with its gilled breathing apparatus rather than moving onto dry land as an adult. Then, if it gets injured, it can actually regenerate parts of its body naturally. Very few animals can do that, making the axolotl an incredibly rare animal.
Sadly, it’s also incredibly rare because it is very nearly extinct. The axolotl is only found in natural freshwater lakes in the region around Mexico City. Centuries of human development in that area have dried up and destroyed pretty much every single natural lake in central Mexico where the axolotl previously called home.
The Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City has been working to track, conserve, and breed them in captivity. Biologists are desperate to study the Axolotl’s regenerative abilities to see if we can learn anything about how we might be able to better combat aging and decline in human populations.
4. The Sea Cow’s Cousin
Surely, you’ve heard of the manatee before. And they have an even wilder, weirder, crazier cousin who lives in very few places in southeast Asia and Australia: the dugong.
Known as Dugong dugon, this large marine mammal has a forked tail that makes it resemble more of a whale than its manatee cousins.
Scientists estimate that there are 10,000 dugongs left in the wild—if that. To lose the dugong would mean losing another branch of the order Sirenia. That would leave manatees—which are already threatened—as the only living creatures left in that order.
You can go see a dugong in captivity! There are only a handful of places on Earth where they are successfully being held in captivity. One is at Underwater World in Pattaya, Thailand. Another is at the Toba Aquarium in Toba, Mie, Japan.
3. Look Out, Don’t Touch!
The Glaucus atlanticus, also commonly known as the blue glaucus or blue dragon, is a sea slug species that is very small, very unique, and very venomous. These sea slugs live by floating upside down in the ocean water, using currents and winds to propel them.
They are poisonous, too, with venom concentrated in sacs on the tips of their body. One sting from the blue glaucus can produce more toxin than that from a man o’ war jellyfish.
These creatures are pretty rare as far as human contact goes, but they do wash up from time to time on sandy beaches along coasts all across the world. Their venom is too great of a risk to be near for too long. A sting can cause nausea, pain, vomiting, and hyperpigmentation of the skin.
You can see the blue glaucus at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium in Australia, as well as the Texas Sea Life Center in Corpus Christi.
2. That’s a HUGE Salamander!
The Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus) is one of the biggest salamanders in the world. Endemic to Japan, these beasts can grow to be as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) long and often weigh the same as a human child.
While the Chinese versions of the massive salamanders do not pose a threat to humans, biologists believe Japanese giant salamanders could potentially attack and injure people on purpose.
They certainly are creepy-looking enough to make you want to stay away. They are so primitive and rudimentary in their large shape. In all, the Japanese giant salamander is the third biggest in the entire world and both the most feared and the most threatened.
You can see them from behind the safety of an enclosure! Not only are they on display at several aquariums in Japan, Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian National Zoo actually has a Japanese giant salamander on display coming from a loan from Asa Zoo in Hiroshima Prefecture.
1. The Mystery Beast
At first glance, the okapi (Okapia johnstoni) probably shouldn’t be on this list. It’s a large animal, looks like a mixture of a zebra and a giraffe, and seems like a pretty basic thing to see in a lot of zoos, right?
Here’s the crazy thing: Nobody actually knew okapis existed until the very first part of the 20th century! Think about that for a moment; an animal as large as the okapi went completely undetected for all of time before explorers finally found evidence that they existed.
For centuries before that, tribesmen in Central Africa told stories of some mythical, quiet beast haunting the local jungles. These okapis were so absurdly secretive, especially considering how big they are, that nobody was able to get a good look at them. Nobody before London Zoo fellow Sir Harry Johnston went on a trip to the remotest jungles deep in Africa in 1901 and painstakingly tracked down the first okapi ever confirmed.
Today, okapis are endangered out in the real world, as their habitats in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are under threat from deforestation, political instability, and war. But thankfully, there is actually a decently strong okapi breeding program going on in zoos. Many zoos around the world host okapis, including London, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
So, when you visit one of those world-famous zoos and see these striped beasts hanging out and eating leaves, just think about how shy they really are. So shy that nobody could tell you they actually existed until just a couple years before the Wright Brothers took to the sky!
If the okapi was able to hide out in jungles until the turn of the 20th century, what about Bigfoot? The Yeti? The Loch Ness Monster? Who knows! Maybe a hundred years from now, we’ll be seeing Bigfoot in zoos across the world just as okapis have been spread out in global conservation drives.
