Variable Harlequin Toad

Amphibians > Harlequin Toads

The Variable Harlequin Toad (Atelopus varius), often hailed as the ‘clown frog,’ is a dazzlingly colored, critically endangered bufonid amphibian native to the torrential mountain streams of Costa Rica and western Panama. Displaying an astounding diversity...

Burmese Star Tortoise

Reptiles > Tortoises

The Plowshare Tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora), known locally as the ‘Angonoka,’ is widely regarded as the rarest and most beautiful tortoise species on planet Earth. Endemic to a minuscule tract of dry deciduous forest around Baly Bay in northwestern...

Devil’s Hole Pupfish

Fish > Pupfishes

The Devil’s Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) holds the distinction of possessing the smallest, most precarious natural geographic range of any vertebrate on Earth, surviving exclusively within the upper reaches of a single limestone cave in the Mojave Desert...

Great Indian Bustard

Birds > Bustards

The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps), reverently known in Hindi as ‘Godawan,’ is a majestic, ground-dwelling avian giant of the arid grasslands and one of the heaviest flying birds on Earth. Standing over a meter tall with an aristocratic posture,...

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Birds > Shorebirds

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) is a tiny, critically endangered shorebird celebrated for its extraordinary spatulate bill, an evolutionary novelty found in no other wading bird on Earth. Each year, this resilient long-distance migrant undertakes an epic...