A member of the Gumatj clan performs a ceremonial welcome during the Garma Festival at the Gulkula ceremonial in the Gove Peninsula of the Northern Territory, Australia 03 August 2024. The Garma Festival is Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering, a 4-day celebration of Yolngu life and culture held in remote northeast Arnhem Land. (Photo by Mick Tsikas/EPA)

“The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the striped possum. From an ecological point of view the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within”. – Wikipedia

Photo: In this handout image from Bristol Zoo is seen the first captive bred aye-aye in the UK named “Kintana” (meaning star in Malagasy) April 15, 2005 at Bristol Zoo Gardens, England. The zoo announced today only the second baby aye-aye to be hand-reared in the world (the first was in Jersey Zoo) and has now made his first public appearance since his birth on 11 February 2005. (Photo by Rob Cousins/Bristol Zoo via Getty Images)

An enormous crocodile mauls a young hippo calf carcass near Lower Sabie on May 11, 2014, in Kruger National Park, South Africa. An enormous crocodile tosses around a young hippo calf caught in its lethal jaws. The giant reared out of the water revealing a young hippo calf between its teeth. The huge beast then span, jumped and splashed in the water with the small carcass. Amateur photographer Roland Ross captured these incredible photographs near Lower Sabie in Kruger Park, South Africa. (Photo by Roland Ross/Barcroft Media)

“This is the terrifying moment a diver came head to head with a shark as it swims inches away snatching a bite for dinner. The close encounter, captured off Bimini Island in the Bahamas, shows the hammerhead approaching diver Eli Martinez who bravely stands his ground as the giant beast approaches. Eli, free diving outside of a protective cage, carefully handled the sea creature despite its menacing razor-sharp teeth – but admitted they are extremely shy and need a lot of work to allow divers close to them. After multiple trips and hours of diving nearby they finally got used to Eli in January this year – hammerheads regularly visit these waters during the winter season”. – Caters News. Photo: Eli Martinez with hammerhead shark. (Photo by J. P. Zegarra/Caters News)

It's that time of year again when dogs with unusually large heads, hairless bodies and other oddities compete to be the World's Ugliest Dog. This year's winner? A 2-year-old mutt named Peanut, whose wild white and brown hair, bulging eyes and protruding teeth belie his sweet, energetic personality. Peanut's owner, Holly Chandler of Greenville, North Carolina, says he was seriously burned as a puppy and she wants to use her pet to raise awareness about animal abuse. She plans to use the $1,500 prize to pay for other animals' veterinary bills. The contest, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, California, is in its 26 year. The dogs are scored by a three-judge panel in several categories, including special or unusual attributes, personality and natural ugliness.

In this October 15, 2014 file photo, Katsu Nakamura, sky division manager for Yamaha USA, moves the RMax unmanned helicopter into position before a demonstration of its aerial application capabilities at the University of California, Davis' Oakville Station test vineyard in Oakville, Calif. Researchers at UC Davis have been studying the effectiveness of the drone's ability for spraying pest control and nutritional materials on the test vineyard in California's Napa Valley. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)

In this Monday, June 29, 2020 a man wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus, walks past a hair product billboard on the street in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases as the continent-wide total is now over 508,000 after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases as a new global hot spot. (Photo by Themba Hadebe/AP Photo/File)

In this Friday, May 10, 2019, file photo, rescuers help a baby wild elephant cross the wetland to return to the forest at Deepor Beel wildlife sanctuary in Gauhati, India. The elephant had gotten stuck in the waters of Deepor Beel after it was separated from a herd of wild elephant that came down in search of food last night. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)