Creepiest Animals in the World
Arthropleura Arthropleura are one of the many megafauna species that are extinct. Their shape would be familiar to anyone who’s encountered a millipede, but it’s their size that really makes them such apparently scary animals.
Coconut Crab Coconut Crab have been known to feast on rats, domesticated chickens, and even kittens. These scary animals have also been known to cannibalize one another with little hesitation.
Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula The long-dead megarachne was a spider capable of reaching a length of nearly two feet – but if you remove spiders that are extinct from the equation, the biggest and scariest arachnid on the record is likely the Goliath bird-eating spider.
Aye Aye A resident of Madagascar, the aye-aye is easily the most unusual looking lemur in the world — but while some people find these primates to fall into the category of animals that are so ugly that they’re cute, that’s not an impression that’s generally shared by the locals who share a habitat with the aye-aye.
Shoebill Stork These scary animals of the tropics poses no threat at all to humans and have been known to let researchers get mere feet away from them comfortably, but the bizarre shoe-shaped beak attached to their face is still a terrifying weapon in the wild.
Blobfish The blobfish has been carrying the title of ugliest animal in the world since 2013, but their strange, gelatinous physiology is just a reflection of how they’ve adapted to suit an environment that’s entirely alien to us.
Goblin Shark The goblin shark is the sole known member of a taxonomic family that dates back 125 million years ago, and you can count yourself grateful that they live in the ocean at depths of over 2,000 feet. These creepy animals can reach lengths of over 12 feet and can weigh as much as a quarter ton.
Northern Short-Tailed Shrew There are nearly 400 different shrew species, and most of them are as harmless as the common mouse they most closely resemble. That’s not true of the short-tailed shrew, a deceptively cute, but nonetheless creepy animal.
Flying Snakes The mild venom of these snakes and the shape of their fangs make them harmless to humans, but that doesn’t make their ability to glide accurately for distances of two dozen meters any less disconcerting.
Sea Squirt These primitive-looking animals shaped like tubes that attach themselves to underwater surfaces and use siphons in their body that filter any food matter that passes through their body without needing to move.