Snow Leopard

True Wild Life | Snow Leopard | The snow leopard  is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia. Although sharing its name with the common leopard, the snow leopard is not believed to be closely related to the Leopard or the other members of the Pantherine group and is classified as the sole member of the genus Uncia uncia. The classification of this species has been subject to change and its exact taxonomic position will not be resolved until further studies are conducted.

Iberian Lynx

True Wild Life | Iberian Lynx | The Iberian lynx also known as Spanish lynx is a critically endangered species native to the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe. It is one of the most endangered cat species in the world. The species used to be classified as a subspecies of the Eurasian Lynx, but is now considered a separate species. Both species occurred together in central Europe in the Pleistocene epoch, being separated by habitat choice. Iberian lynx resembles other species of lynx, with a short tail, tufted ears and a ruff of fur beneath the chin. Iberian lynx has leopard-like spots with a coat that is often light grey or various shades of light brownish-yellow. The coat is also noticeably shorter than in other lynxes, which are typically adapted to colder environments.

Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frog

True Wild Life | Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frog | The Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frog is a species of frog in the Ranidae family. It is endemic to Japan. Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frogs only live in the northern main island of Okinawa. Not like the other frogs, Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frogs have nostrils at the tip of their faces. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and rivers. It is threatened by habitat loss. Ryukyu Tip-Nosed Frogs enjoy eating small bugs or centipedes, and some shellfishes on the land.

Ishikawa's Frog

True Wild Life | Ishikawa's Frog | Ishikawa's Frog is the most beautiful frog in Japan. Forests are disappearing and rivers are becoming dirty. Ishikawa's frog is in danger. Amphibians have trouble changing when their environment changes. They have a purple and green pattern that looks like moss. It hides them from their enemies.

Goliath Frog

True Wild Life | Goliath Frog | The Goliath Frog is the biggest frog in the world. They have been popular as food from a long time ago. They are also caught to keep as pets or for their skin, and their numbers have gone down to half of what they were before. This animal has a relatively small habitat range, mainly in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Its numbers are dwindling due to habitat destruction, its collection for consumption as food and its collection for the pet trade.

Golden Poison Frog

True Wild Life | Golden Poison Frog | The Golden Poison Frog is the most poisonous animal in the world. Unfortunately, they are on the brink of extinction because tropical rainforests are disappearing. The golden poison Frog's skin is densely coated in alkaloid poison, one of a number of poisons common to dart frogs  which prevents nerves from transmitting impulses, leaving the muscles in an inactive state of contraction. This can lead to heart failure or fibrillation.

Kuroiwa's Ground Gecko

True Wild Life | Kuroiwa's Ground Gecko | Kuroiwa's Ground Gecko, or the Okinawan Ground Gecko, is a species of lizard in the Gekkonidae family. It is endemic  to Japan.  Kuroiwa's Ground Geckos only live on the Okinawa Islands and Tokunoshima of the Amami Islands.

Okinawa Rail

True Wild Life | Okinawa Rail | The Okinawa Rail is a flightless bird that only lives on the main island of Okinawa. It is endemic to Okinawa Island in Japan where it is known as the Yanbaru Kuina. Its existence was only confirmed in 1978 and it was formally described in 1981 although unidentified rails had been recorded on the island since at least 1973 and local stories of a bird known as the agachi kumira may refer to this species.

Kowari

True Wild Life | Kowari | also known as the Brush-tailed Marsupial Rat, Kayer Rat, Byrne's Crest-tailed Marsupial Rat, Bushy-tailed Marsupial Rat and Kawiri, is a small carnivorous marsupial native to the dry grasslands and deserts of central Australia. It is monotypical of its genus.  The Kowari is a ground dwelling carnivorous marsupial, living either in its own dug burrow or in the hole of another mammal. The Kowari is a solitary animal and marks its territory with secreations from a scent gland and leaving scats and urine at certain places throught their home teritory When approached, Kowari are very aggressive with much hisssing and chattering and thrashing of its tail.

Yellow-Eyed Penguin

True Wild Life | Yellow-Eyed Penguin | The yellow-eyed penguin is one of the few penguin species found north of the Antarctic Ocean, and as it's name suggests, this species of penguin is easily idenitfied by it's yellow coloured eyes and bright yellow band that runs from it's eyes round the back of the yellow-eyed penguin's head. The yellow-eyed penguin is found off the coast of the south island of New Zealand where this species gathers in colonies along the beaches and boulder fields. The yellow-eyed penguin is also found on a few of the islands of the main island including Stewart, Auckland and the Campbell Islands.

Wrasse

True Wild Life | Wrasse | The wrasse is a typically small species of fish, found in the coastal waters of the world's major oceans. The Cleaner wrasse is the most commonly known wrasse species as it is often seen alongside other marine animals, including sharks. There are more than 500 different species of Wrasse found in the shallower coastal waters and coral reefs, of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. Wrasse most commonly inhabit areas that have an abundance of both food and places to hide, making coral reefs and rocky shores the perfect home for the wrasse.

Wolverine

True Wild Life | Wolverine | The wolverine is a medium sized mammal that despite it's bear-like appearance (and it's name) is most closely related to the weasel. The wolverine is known to be strong and vicious and is said to have immense strength in comparison to it's size. The wolverine is found throughout Canada, Europe, parts of North America and the Arctic Circle where the wolverines inhabit mountainous regions and dense forests. Wolverines are also known to venture into more open areas such as plains and farmland when they are in search of food.

Wolf

True Wild Life | Wolf | The wolf is thought to be an ice age survivor, dating wolves around 300,000 years ago. The wolf is accepted to be the ancestor of the domestic dog as the wolf is thought to have selectively bred in order to breed appealing traits typical of puppies and to eliminate the not so appealing traits of adult wolves. The grey wolf is a highly adaptive animal found in all kinds of terrain. Wolves inhabit forests, deserts, mountains, tundras, grasslands and even urban areas with the wolf being a particularly dominant and ruthless predator within it's environment. They vary in color from pure white to pure black and every shade of brown and gray inbetween. At one time the wolf had the widest distribution of any mammal. The biggest wolves on earth live in Alaska and average 125-135 lb. One specimen was taken that weighed 200 lb. The smallest wolves live in Iran and average about 60 lb.

White Tiger

True Wild Life | White Tiger | The white tigers originated in the pure Bengal strain in India. Later in captivity Siberian was crossed in to make a bigger more impressive white tiger. They do have some pigment, so they are not albinos. The white tiger has a shorter life expectancy than the orange tiger, thought to be due to the white tigers mutated genes and to the inbreeding depression necessary to perpetuate the bloodline. The white tiger was always rare to come across in the wild in India, and none have been seen in the wild for over 50 years. The gene that causes the background to be white is a simple recessive. For that reason to produce whites they must be mated either to other whites or to normal orange tigers that are carriers of the white gene. The white tiger has been known to give birth to an orange tiger when mated to an orange male. Cubs of both colors occur in the same litter.

Whale Shark

True Wild Life | Whale Shark | The whale shark is the largest species of fish with some adult whale sharks growing to nearly 50ft long! The whale shark is thought to have developed around 60 million years ago making the whale shark one of the oldest species on Earth today. The whale shark spends it's life swimming through the open oceans in search of fish and squid. Unlike many other species of shark, the whale shark is known to feed on large shoals of tiny fish rather than hunting bigger fish and sea mammals. This makes the whale shark a filter feeder similar to whales and smaller sea animals.

Weasel

True Wild Life | Weasel | The weasel is a small, thin mammal. Weasels are found all around the world apart from the Arctic and Australia including it's surrounding islands. The weasel feeds mainly on small mammals and the weasel has a bad reputation amongst farmers who do not approve of the weasel stealing their poultry and their eggs. The weasel can burrow quickly into the ground, meaning the weasel can easily escape danger including farmers that want to catch them.

Walrus

True Wild Life | Walrus | The walrus is a large marine mammal that has flippers to help it swim. The walrus is found in the colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere, but the walrus is much more adapted specifically to the conditions of the Arctic Circle. There are three species of walrus. The Atlantic walrus, the Pacific walrus and the Laptev walrus found in the Laptev Sea. The walrus is most closely related to the seal and although the walrus and the seal are obviously similar, the walrus has some distinctive features such as the large tusks on the face of the walrus.

Vulture

True Wild Life | Vulture | The vulture is a large, carnivorous bird that is most well known for its scavenging nature. The vulture is one of the few types of bird that is found distributed so widely around the world, as vultures are found on every continent excluding the Antarctic and Australia and the islands that surround it. Different species of vultures of firstly classified into two groups, the old world vultures and the new world vultures. There are thought to be nearly 30 different species of vulture that are found worldwide.

Vampire Bat

True Wild Life | Vampire Bat | The vampire bat is a small species of bat, native to the tropics of Central and South America. There are three recognised sub-species of vampire bat, all of which are in a genus of their own despite their obvious similarities. The common vampire bat, the hairy-legged vampire bat and the white-winged vampire bat are all closely related and share the same unique feeding habits, as they are the only known mammals that feed entirely on blood. Over time, vampire bats have perfectly adapted to the consumption of their only food source, with a leaf-like heat sensor on the end of their nose which detects where the warm blood is flowing closest to the skin.

Tuatara

True Wild Life | Tuatara | The tuatara is a small to medium sized reptile, that is found only on a few small islands surrounding New Zealand. Although the tuatara was once found inhabiting mainland New Zealand in large numbers, today the tuatara is nearly extinct from the mainland. Despite the lizard-like appearance of the tuatara, the tuatara is actually only a very distant relative of the lizard and the snake. The tuatara is believed to have broken off from lizards and snakes more than 200 million years ago!.