Zebras, tigers, meh… these 7 amazing striped creatures manage to fly below the radar while sporting some of the wildest stripes in the animal kingdom!
Striped Hyena
(images via: FindFast)
The Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is the smallest of the true hyenas and certain of its physical features are more primitive than its Brown and Spotted cousins. Listed as Near Threatened by IUCN, the Striped Hyena can be found from the Atlantic coasts of western Africa eastward to the Indian subcontinent.
(image via: IUCN)
If you don’t recall seeing Striped Hyenas featured on TV nature programs, you’re not losing your memory. Rather, this species is strictly nocturnal and only emerges from underground dens in complete darkness, returning long before sunrise. This being the case, one wonders why it has evolved such a distinctly striped coat.
Tiger Spider
(images via: Oscar Mendez)
If you were to cross a tiger with a spider… you’d have to be out of your mind! The Tiger Spider (Linothele fallax) is a member of the Dipluroidea family of Funnel-web Tarantulas so yes: not only does the Tiger Spider exist, it’s large and venomous.
(image via: Oscar Mendez)
Credit Flickr user Oscar Mendez for taking and posting these images of this and other large, shaggy, menacing spiders. We’re not sure why they allowed Mendez to come so close without displaying some sort of fear response… perhaps they were just drawing him closer since any creature worthy of the name Tiger Spider likely doesn’t HAVE a fear response, it provokes it in other creatures instead.
Numbat
(images via: G’Day from W.A. and Arkive/Ann & Steve Toon)
The Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) is a marsupial termite-eating mammal once common in southern Australia but now only found in several small scattered colonies. Numbats are prodigious eaters, consuming up to 20,000 termites daily but it’s not easy as these unique and beautiful animals’ claws aren’t strong enough to break into termite mounds.
(image via: Independent Media Centre Australia)
Numbats are day-active creatures, a characteristic that enhances their exposure to introduced predators like foxes. Government programs that distribute poisoned bait for foxes have helped reduce pressure on the species, allowing numbats to maintain or increase their populations from historic lows set in the late 1970s. Numbats are strikingly striped, mainly on their hindquarters, indicating to some scientists a genetic relationship to the extinct Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine.
