WEIRDEST ANIMALS ON THE PLANET

A colorful guide to oddities in the animal world.

This album of animal photographs and facts follows the format of previous titles in this National Geographic series, such as Deadliest Animals on the Planet (2023). From the blue-ringed octopus, whose “shiny blue rings light up,” to three birds with astonishing hairstyles—the hoopoe, the Victoria crowned pigeon, and the cock of the rock—every page has a critter or group of critters with a surprising habit, characteristic, or appearance. Each unusual creature is shown close up, either filling the page or within a circular frame. Text boxes and more circles describe each animal’s peculiarities. Sometimes an animal has a brief exclamatory comment, such as “bizarre!” or “no way!!” The word weird also appears often. While the text is fairly challenging to read, there isn’t much of it, and those attracted by individual images may be willing to work to puzzle out the short paragraphs. The facts are engaging: The tapir, a land animal, likes to poop underwater, and the goblin shark has jaws that move like a slingshot. There’s no apparent organization underlying the presentation of the myriad creatures, both vertebrates and invertebrates, although the index does group them into broader categories (“marine mammals,” “rodents,” “worms”) as well as listing some animals individually.

An animal-loving browsers’ delight.