There are beasts on this great planet of ours that could make your eyes pop out your head in a mixture of wonder and awe. Here’s the lowdown on where you can see such bizarre creatures in their natural habitat…
Featured image: NeilsPhotography
Komodo dragons
Photo by Adhi Rachdian
It may not not fly or breathe fire, but the world’s biggest breed of lizard does at least have the look of something that’s walked right out a fairy tale. Well, in miniature any way. Head to the Indonesian islands of Flores, Gili Motang, Padar, Rinca, and Komodo if you fancy getting spotting one of these hissing, three-metre long carnivores scampering along a tropical beach.
Manatees & dugongs
Photo by ASCOM
Sea cows aren’t particularly scary but they are big and weird-looking, two classic monster traits if there ever were. Manatees tend to be found around the Caribbean and south east US coast (especially around Miami), as well as western Africa. Their larger cousins, the dugongs, are found mostly around south eastern Asia and Australia. It’s a tough call, but dugongs are probably a smidgen odder due to the vacuum cleaner-like snouts that they use to suck up grub from the seafloor.
Aye-ayes
Photo by Frank Vassen
The aye-aye is a lemur that skulks around at night, gnawing into trees before inserting its long spindly fingers inside to extract grubs and beetles. Being furry, it could be seen as cute, but it’s also terrifying depending on your perspective – traditionally, the people of Madagascar have associated the animal with death, and many are killed on sight and strung up to ward off evil spirits. Yikes!
