Photo Blog: Scary Wildlife

Photo Blog: Scary Wildlife

For many people, Halloween is an excuse to embrace your dark side and let your creepy flag fly high.

In the wild, however, you don’t need a reason to be scary – or scared for that matter. It’s a daily occurrence for many animals. In preparation for Halloween, here are a few animals that embrace their scariness on a daily basis.

Crocodile
With their incredible jaws, scaled bodies, and reptilian eyes, the chilling appearance of a crocodile alone is enough to inspire fear.

Forest Cobra 
Snakes, in general, are enough to make most people nervous, so a massive black snake is bound to freak you out.

The Forest Cobra is highly venomous and is a big snake….they can be aggressive if cornered, so best take a step to safety if you see one of these slithering your way!

Marabou Stork
With its featherless, fleshy head and long bone-coloured bill, the appearance of Marabou Storks is so chilling, that they’ve made the list of Africa’s ‘Ugly Five’.

It has been nicknamed the ‘undertaker bird’ due to its dark plumage and its love of carrion.

Hippo
Hippos are quite literally the most dangerous animals in Africa, and one of the scariest in the world.

They can be extremely aggressive, and are responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other large animal.

Bonus – Thick Tailed Bushbaby
With their big, bright eyes, and fluffy tails, can a bushbaby really be scary? The reality is…yes! These nocturnal critters are very hard to spot at night, but very easy to hear when they call to each other. And the sound they make is hair-raising! If you’ve never heard one before, you’d never expect the sound to come out of such a cute animal. Think mutant baby demon crying for vengeance and you’re on the right track.

Credit: Richard Du Toit/NPL

Posted by tfhadmin