Thailand has the privilege of being the home of natures tiniest mammal. It is called The Bumblebee Bat. It's weight is less than a Penny and full grown, it is less than 11mm in length.These tiny mammals live in the hot limestone caves of Thailand and come out at dusk to forage for insects in the teak trees and bamboo where they hover like hummingbirds. Their habitat has been devastated by deforestation and high levels of teak logging. In 1982, the Royal Forest Department of the Thailand Government could only find 160 of them living in 3 different caves. They are now considered one the12 most endangered species of the world.

The Etruscan Pygmy Shrew is a close second only because it is longer. Its length from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail is about 60mm long. It weighs approximately 1.3 to 2.0 grams. The Etruscan Shrew is a forager of insects who lives its short 15 month life span in the forests and brush areas of Southern Asia and Southern Europe.

The largest mammal on earth has been hunted to near extinction. It is on the endangered species list. This beautiful, gentle creature is The Blue Whale. This mammal is the largest animal known to have ever existed! A Blue Whale can get up to 108 ft long and and weigh more than 172 metric tons! As large as this massive creature is, it eats small fish, plankton and a tiny crustacean known as Krill. It eats about 8,000 pounds of these tiny seafood a day! The Blue Whale was hunted nearly to extinction until becoming a protected species in 1966. There remain Blue Whale pod concentrations in each of the North-East Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Blobfish of Tasmania and Australia gets my vote for ugliest, oh my oddness what is that! My friend the Blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water. It floats just above the very deep sea floor, which is why it is rarely ever seen by humans. It feeds on whatever edibles floats by it! Though ugly, it does a beautiful job of mothering, when nesting, it sits on its eggs until they hatch, keeping them safe from predators.

The Star-nosed Mole who hangs out in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States gets my attention next. This sea-anemone faced looking creature looks like a hybrid! I can't tell if it belongs on land or sea. It prowls around the low wetland areas eating small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. Being a good swimmer makes it easy to forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. Like other moles, this star faced little creature is a tunnel digger! He doesn't care whether it is day or night, summer or winter he is a busy little guy! He has even been seen swimming in icy water!

The Hagfish makes me wonder if aliens have landed! An incredibly strange looking fish! This fish comes from a very primitive lineage and its classification as a fish is being questioned. When I look at it, I can't wonder why! Hagfish have bodies like an eel and a tail like a paddle. When they feel they are in danger they secrete a sticky mucous like substance. When captured and held by the tail, they escape by secreting the fibrous slime, which turns into a thick and sticky gel when combined with water, and then cleaning off by tying themselves in an overhand knot which works its way from the head to the tail of the animal, scraping off the slime as it goes.

The Poison Arrow Frog covers over 160 species. These are the deadliest creatures in the world! This cold blooded amphibian lives on land in the rain forests of South and Central America. These are tiny frogs measuring only 1-5 cm in length. They are beautiful creatures, black with bright yellow, blue, pink, n, orange, and red. The female frog usually lays around 46 eggs. From tadpole to death, their lifespan is about 13 to 15 years.

Salamanders are another very poisonous creature. Not all species but normally the brightly colored ones with prominant markings are! Nocturnal in nature you may not even know they are near! The smaller ones are only 4 to 6 inches in length but hold on to your hat---there are some that get up to 5' long, The Chinese Giant Salamander! Salamanders eat snails, bugs, worms and insects. Oh and they are also Cannibals! Salamanders live both on land or in the water. They like the versatility of both. There are about 380 species of 10 breeds of Salamanders!

The Candiru Fish are parasites. They feed off of blood. Once it enters its victim the Candirú begins to gnaw a hole towards a major blood vessel and gorges itself, besides attacking other fish, the Candiru can swim up the urethra or penis and into the bladder of a human!. It then feeds on the body until it causes hemorrhaging and it can cause death to its host! These are small translucent fish which makes them hard to see. The adult fish grows to about 15 cm. They have short sensory barbels around their heads, short, backward pointing spines on their gill covers which makes them almost impossible to remove once they have entered their host! Read the following link. It has the surgical report of an actual case that is very interesting! An unusual case that ended up in successful removal of the fish from a man's testicle! http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2288/can-the-candir-fish-swim-upstream-into-your-urethra-revisited

The Blue Ringed Octopus may look pretty, but do not be fooled! This tiny cephalopod which measures only a few centimeters is a killer! Its painless sting leads to paralysis and death in a short period of time! The tiny but deadly beauty lives in tide pools and shallow tropical waters. Its neurotoxins are more toxic than any creatures on land!

The Vampire Squid is one mixed up creature! It shares more similarities with the Octopus and Jellyfish than the Squid! It has tentacles like an Octopus that are webbed like a Bat in between, and its form is gelatinous like a Jellyfish. It propels itself along at 2 body lengths per second,with fins that look like large ears coming out of the sides of its head. Although this creature is very small, it has large eyes, the size of a large dog! Each of the eight arms is lined with a single row of suction cups and rows of soft, fleshy spines known as cirri. It is these spines, along with the cape-like webbing and red eyes that give the vampire squid its unusual name. There are a pair of retractable sensory filaments located inside the squids webbed arms. Located within the webbing are two powerful beak-like jaws that are used to crush the shells of crustaceans. The Vampire squid's color ranges from jet black to pale red. The vampire squid's body is covered with light-producing organs called photophores. This gives the squid the unique ability to "turn itself on or off" at will through a chemical process known as bioluminescence. When the photophores are off, the squid is completely invisible in the dark waters where it lives.This creature lives in the cold water at depths of 700 meters and requires as little as 3% oxygen.

The Black Swallower lives at depths around 1500 meters below the surface. It can live in either the cold or tropical warm waters.The Black Swallower is another fairly small fish which grows to a length of around 25 centimeters. The Black Swallower is a deep sea creature with the ability to use bioluminescence. This fish does a very strange thing. It can stretch its stomach to three times its original size!

The Giant Isopod These strange creatures can be found at depths between 200 and 2000 meters. These lovely "water bugs"  closely related to pill bugs! They remind me of the "water bugs" we find in the clay bed puddles left a week or so later after a heavy rain in the desert.They also use the same defensive technique, rolling into a ball for protection, the clear difference being that pill bugs are only about the size of a pea, while the Giant Isopod can grow up to nearly 40 centimeters long and weigh in at 1.5 kilograms. Another key feature about the Giant Isopod is the highly reflective eyes it has. These isdopods are scavengers, they scavenge the sea floor waiting for the remains of other predator’s meals to fall to the floor.

God's creativity really amazes me! I am certain there are many more wonderful, strange, and mysterious things for me to see and read about as I will continue to do and add to this Hub as I go, so come on back and check this site out occasionally and see what wonders I find to share!