Asiatic Short-tailed Shrew

Mammals > Shrews

The Asiatic Short-tailed Shrew (Blarinella quadraticauda) is a stout, burrowing insectivorous mammal native to the misty montane ranges of southwestern China. Inhabiting the high-altitude cloud forests and bamboo zones of the Hengduan Mountains—the same rugged...

Armoured Stickleback

Fish > Sticklebacks & Pipefishes

The Armoured Stickleback (Indostomus paradoxus), also affectionately called the paradox fish, is a bizarre miniature freshwater fish native to the pristine wetlands of northern Myanmar. First collected in 1929 from Lake Indawgyi, this tiny teleost baffled...

Mediterranean Water Shrew

Mammals > Shrews

The Mediterranean Water Shrew (Neomys anomalus), also recognized as Miller’s water shrew, is a secretive, semi-aquatic mammal endemic to waterways and damp meadows across southern and central Europe. Characterized by its dense velvet bicolored coat, specialized...

Common Paradise Kingfisher

Birds > Kingfishers

The Common Paradise Kingfisher (Tanysiptera galatea) is universally admired as one of the most elegant and spectacularly plumage birds in the Australasian tropics. Inhabiting the shadowed understory of lowland rainforests across New Guinea and the Moluccan islands,...

Whitehead’s Broadbill

Birds > Perching Birds

Whitehead’s Broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi), named after the renowned British explorer and naturalist John Whitehead, is the largest and most magnificent member of the broadbill family (Calyptomenidae). Strictly endemic to the misty mountain cloud forests of...