Montana: Pronghorn
Often confused for an antelope, pronghorns with their distinctive backward-curving horns belong to a family of mammals all their own. After the cheetah, they are the second fastest land mammal in the world running more than 53 miles an hour according to National Geographic; even babies can outrun humans within a few days of being born. They can also go the distance if they cut down to half that speed. But despite long legs and the ability to achieve a running start, they rarely jump fences instead choosing to go underneath them. The pronghorn warning system is also guaranteed to make young children giggle: When frightened, the hairs on their behinds raises into a white patch that can be seen for miles.
Nebraska: Nine-banded armadillo
Of the 20 species of little-armored ones (the name’s Spanish translation), only the nine-banded armadillo, which can actually have anywhere from seven and 11 bands despite the name, is found in the United States. Once relegated to southeastern states, their range is continually expanding northward and now the bizarre beasts with ossified dermal scutes, keratinized epidermal scales, long sticky tongues, and hairy undersides are often spotted in the Cornhusker State. The insectivore cannot curl into a ball and roll away from danger despite popular belief. Only two types of armadillos can ball up according to The National Wildlife Federation. But it can jump three to four feet in the air, float across rivers by inflating its intestines, hold its breath for six minutes while running across riverbeds, and quickly dig a snug trench to lodge itself in when in danger.
Nevada: Cat-faced spider
Also known as a jewel spider, it belongs to a subset of spiders known as angulates, which can be identified by the presence of two pronounced bumps on the top of its abdomen. Those bumps form the ears of the feline face found on this eight-legged creepy crawler. Sitting with its head toward the ground is this spider’s preferred stance so most of the time the kitty appears upside down. Cat ladies have nothing to fear from this harmless-to-humans fellow.
New Hampshire: Buffalo treehopper
The buffalo treehopper is a tiny green plant jumper that earned its name because the pest appears to have horns and a tail that resemble those of a bison. But the tail is actually just the pointy end of the ridge on its back and the horns are the colored protuberances that come out of the widest part of its head.
New Jersey: Periodical cicada
These red-eyed freaks of nature emerge from living underground, subsisting on tree-root fluids, every 13 or 17 years through chimneys/turrets they build out of mud and immediately shed their skin. Harmless cicadas ascend synchronously in tremendous numbers in spring, often after a light rain. Males band together as a chorus to sing to potential mates and within a couple of months, eggs are laid and the adults disappear once again.
New Mexico: Gemsbok
These guys make the list simply because New Mexico is a strange place to find such a big wild herd. As their other name implies, the African oryx hail from another continent. According to Popular Mechanics, the gemsbok made their way out of Africa in 1969 when a group of 95 was transplanted from the savannahs of Southern Africa to the White Sands Missile Range and the surrounding area of New Mexico to give local hunters a big game target. That group thrived thanks to a lack of natural predators and now number more than 3,000.
New York: Seneca white deer
The Seneca Army Depot, a wildlife sanctuary and military museum built on a 7,000-acre former munitions and nuclear bomb storage facility in the Finger Lakes region, is home to the world’s largest herd of white deer. These ghost deer, a natural variation of the white-tailed species caused by a recessive gene, are not albinos. They are leucistic and therefore lack all pigmentation in their hair, but have normal noses and brown eyes. According to the depot’s non-profit organization’s website, the limited predators and controlled hunting on the defunct base allowed numbers to increase for more than 60 years.
North Carolina: Glass lizard
Abundant in the eastern part of the state, these guys are often mistaken for snakes. But glass lizards are actually legless (usually) lizards because of their head shape, movable eyelids, and external ear openings. Some have retained small stubby useless vestigial legs. The name refers to the tendency of their tails to easily break into several pieces like glass when they drop them to avoid being captured or eaten. It can take years for the tail to grow back and it is almost always smaller than its predecessor.
North Dakota: Spotted skunk
A unique fur pattern makes these skunks stand out in the crowd of sprayers. But the name is a bit of a misnomer as they only have one spot—on the forehead. They are however missing that traditional center white stripe and look more like a weasel. In many other ways, these skunks are like your average backyard intruder, especially when it comes to their defense mechanisms. First comes the warning. There’s front feet stomping, tail raising, hissing, and sometimes a handstand-like position which puts their shooter (aka their tushes) in the air. If that doesn’t work, two glands on the sides of the anus will release odorous oil through nipples.
Ohio: Lamprey
They wwaaaant to suck your blood. Well, maybe not your blood per se, but these aquatic vampires attach jawless disc-shaped mouths to fish in streams and rivers and feast on their blood. According to Ohio’s Division Of Wildlife, seven species including the non-native sea lamprey are found in Buckeye State waters. Sea lampreys also use their gnarly mouths to suction cup and move stones to form a breeding pit. Pits are made and used by the whole community of parasites.
Oklahoma: Ringtail
If you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of these timid and tiny (usually weighing only a pound or two and are 24 inches in length) nocturnal animals, it’s likely you’ll mistake them for a really pretty housecat, an escaped zoo lemur thanks to oversized eyes and a long ringed tail of 14 to 16 black-and-white stripes, or for a fox because of their pointy muzzle and whiskers. But they are relatives of coatis and raccoons. They are great climbers. According to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, having the ability to rotate their back paws 180 degrees allows them to ascend walls, trees, cliffs, and even cacti. Their ears have also adapted to move independently so ringtails can listen to what’s happening in front and behind them simultaneously.
Oregon: Porcupine
Generally found in the eastern half of the state and occasionally west of the Cascade Mountains according to OregonLive.com, it is best not to mess with porcupines. Covered in up to 30,000 sharp, barbed quills they use for defense, studies show the large, slow rodents are intelligent, able to learn, and have long memories, especially of mistreatment according to National Geographic. If rattling their quills doesn’t scare off predators, they will ram backward into them as the quills cannot be shot out of the body. They do however grow back over time. They don’t ask for trouble and are herbivores, but have been seen chewing on animal bones to sharpen their teeth and intake minerals like salt and calcium to stay healthy.
Pennsylvania: American paddlefish
Don’t call it a comeback. The paddlefish has been here for years—since the Paleozoic era (300 to 400 million years ago) to be precise. Fossil evidence of this long-snouted filter-feeding fish is millions of years old. The paddle, which is longer than the rest of its head and flat on the top and bottom, might be a touch organ or it may help stabilize the fish when its jaw is extended. Strangely, young paddlefish do not have the trademark rostrum. They also have teeth while the adult versions, which can weigh more than 200 pounds, do not.
Rhode Island: Northern snakehead
National Geographic warns about the perils of ignoring this aggressive invasive fish with reptilian coloring, razor-sharp teeth that can tear human flesh, ravenous appetites, and an ability to be amphibious. That’s right, these bad boys cannot only survive on land for three days using a primitive lung above their gills, they can walk on it by rhythmically swinging their muscular bodies and fins back and forth. Also a problem: snakeheads reach sexual maturity by two or three, mate up to five times a year, and can release 15,000 eggs at once.
South Carolina: Sheepshead fish
Sheepshead fish, which can be found in waters from Massachusetts to Brazil, look like a genetic experiment gone wrong thanks to its human teeth. A Scientific American blog post explains that fully-grown convict fish—a nickname inspired by the distinctive black bars running down their silvery bodies—have well-defined incisors at the front of their jaw, multiple rows of molars, and strong grinders at the back. As with humans, this unique combination of choppers allows them to bite into armored prey like clams, crabs, and barnacles.
South Dakota: Least weasel
These guys are pretty darn cute, but they are also cutthroat hunters with huge appetites according to World Atlas. Their wee bodies—usually five to seven inches in length with an inch-long tail —transform when on the hunt for voles and mice. They can narrow their bodies to follow prey into a tiny burrow or hole the size of a wedding ring. Their coats also change color seasonally—brown in summer and white to match the winter snow—to provide better camouflage. Once they find a target, they swiftly latch onto the back of its head and bite through its skull with its very sharp teeth.
Tennessee: Cave salamander
The Tennessee cave salamander, a slimy pale pink creature with a pale belly and bright red feathery external gills, was designated the state amphibian in 1995. On the threatened list, they live in streams found inside caves and sinkholes, according to Tennessee Watchable Wildlife.
Texas: Jaguarundi
Despite its name, the jaguarundi’s closet relative is the mountain lion. It does not share either’s ferocious reputation mostly because the rodent hunter is only 30 inches from nose to tail. They are also born with spots like a leopard but lose them with age. The mini cat that looks more like a weasel than a cougar is common in Central and South America, where it was used as a Pied Piper on small village rat populations, but the Gulf Coast of the Lone Star State is the only place they are found in the states, according to Big Cat Rescue. The often-solitary animals occasionally forage and travel in pairs, communicating with 13 distinct recorded vocalizations.
Utah: Gila monster
These black and ivory, pimply relatives of Komodo dragons have small hidden beady eyes and look like they are missing lips. Fortunately for humans, they spend 95 percent of their time underground and lumber around slowly when they do emerge because they are incredibly venomous. When they bite, poison secreted by their salivary glands is propelled through their teeth by chewing and capillary action into their victim. Pioneers used to believe their breath was toxic, but in an ironic twist of fate, peptides found in their venom have been shown to inhibit lung cancer growth and treat diabetes, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill research.
Vermont: Marten
These mink-like, housecat-sized omnivores were long considered extirpated from the boreal forests of the Green Mountain State despite an attempt to reintroduce them from 1989 and 1991. But Vermont’s Department of Fish and Wildlife started reporting new sightings of the shy guys in 2014. They average 21 to 26 inches long with a third of that length coming from their bushy tails. As agile climbers, they spend lots of time in trees hunting for squirrels and chipmunks, nesting, and birthing their annual litters. It can rotate its hind legs to descend trees headfirst.
Virginia: Assassin bug
This is the kind of insect nightmares are made of—narrow heads, wide abdomens that generally flare upward, “butts” that tip into the air, black bodies with bright red markings, and a terrifying fang that can inflict an intense bite on humans. They earned their names because they move nimbly and rapidly when on the hunt. Powerful front legs pin down insects while a strong beak emerges from its hiding place under the head and repeatedly stabs it like a serial killer. Once dead, it sucks out the insect’s insides.
Washington: Geoduck
The largest intertidal and biggest burrowing clam in the world (as well as one of the longest-living animals) makes its home in the chilly coastal substrates and silts of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. The valves stay open in adult geoducks because the body and siphons are too large to retract. This defining feature inspired the Chinese to refer to them as elephant trunk clams. It can stretch its neck 24 inches from its body. Geoducks, considered a delicacy in culinary circles, position themselves about 3 feet in the sand and then hang there for 100 years.
West Virginia: Puss caterpillar
Looks can kill in the case of these wooly slugs. It may look furry and soft, but the long brown silky hairs of the puss caterpillar hide hollow poisonous spines that can cause intense pain, swelling, itchy rash, anxiety, fever, muscle cramps, swollen glands, and vomiting, according to the University of Michigan. This makes them the most poisonous caterpillars in the United States.
Wisconsin: Craspedacusta sowerbii
Warning: You might never look at lakes in the same way again after reading about this globular creature Popular Mechanics reports has been sighted numerous time in the fresh waters of America’s Dairyland despite being indigenous to China. But you can exhale as the one-inch Craspedacusta sowerbii, a freshwater jellyfish or hydra relative, has stingers far too small to pierce human skin. If you want to witness them, the best time is August or September in calm shallow waters although inexplicably their numbers vary wildly from season to season.
Wyoming: Wolverine
No, Hugh Jackman doesn’t finish out the list. We’re talking about the largest terrestrial member of the Mustelid family with its broad head, beady eyes, and minor underbite. These beasts are survivors adapted to take on polar vortexes with no need to hibernate thanks to their dark oily fur that withstands frost. Wide feet act like natural snowshoes and upper molars at the backs of their mouths are rotated 90 degrees to allow them to rip meat from frozen-solid carrion. They also have the energy to travel some 15 miles a day in search of food and females practice embryonic diapause, a delayed implantation of the embryo to the uterus months after breeding. Interestingly, when their bundles of joy finally make an appearance, they are pure white.
SOURCE: READER’S DIGEST
