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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Best Reasons to Consider These Odd-Looking Animals as Pets


Here are five odd-looking species of animals you may want to consider as pet. Weird and unusual reasons why you have to keep one as a pet are included.

Naked Mole Rat


Naked Mole Rat is definitely a weird choice for a pet. Its binomial name is Heterocephalus glaber. This unique-looking burrowing rodent is also commonly known as Sand Puppy or Desert Mole Rat. It is endemic to Africa

Reasons for you to consider it a pet:

  • It is one of only two known eusocial mammal and it can thrive in a harsh, underground environment. So if you don’t like to see often because of its awful appearance, don’t worry, it always stays underground.
  • Its skin is lacking in pain sensation and it has a very low metabolism.
  • It looks fragile but it is actually hardy and long-living. There’s no need to buy another pet every time.
  • They are easy to maintain and their foods are cheap. Naked Moles feed on tubers but also eat their own feces. A single tuber can provide a colony with a long-term source of food—lasting for months, or even years, as they eat the inside but leave the outside, allowing the tuber to regenerate.
  • Unlike other pet animals, this extraordinarily long-lived rodent lives up to 28 years. It holds the record for the longest living rodent.
  • They are cancer-resistant too. Naked Mole Rats have a high resistance to cancer because it has never been observed in them.

Black Lemur


The Black Lemur or Eulemur macaco is a unique-looking animal species endemic to Madagascar. It lives in moist forest of Sambirano region and nearby islands.

Reasons for you to consider it a pet:

  • If you have a Black Lemur, you are one of the few to own a pet with brown or orange eyes.
  • In addition, its ears are tufts.
  • Easy to feed and its food is cheap because it feeds primarily on fruit.
  • Other foods eaten include nectar, flowers, leaves, fungi and some invertebrates.

Damaraland Mole Rat


The Damaraland Mole Rat is absolutely unique choice for a pet. It is formally known as Fukomys damarensis and it lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also commonly known as Damaraland blesmo. It is named after Damaraland, Namibia

Reasons for you to consider it a pet:

  • It is one of only two known eusocial mammals.
  • It lives in continually excavated networks of underground tunnels.
  • Its front teeth are essentially located outside its mouth.
  • It is less vocal, making only some birdlike chirps.

Sclater’s Lemur


Sclater’s Lemur or Eulemur flavifrons is also endemic to Madagascar. It inhabits moist forest of Sahamalaza Peninsula and nearby forest. It is also known as Blue-eyed Black Lemur.

Reasons for you to consider it a pet:

  • You’ll be one of the rare pet owners to own a blue-eyed animal because it has blue eyes, the only primate other than humans which has blue eyes.
  • Easy to feed and their foods are cheap which include fruit, pollen, and nectar make up the bulk of the Blue-eyed Lemur's diet.
  • If the above-mentioned foods are scarce, it also feeds on leaves, seeds and berries and rarely insects.
  • Just be watchful because it has been observed committing infanticide against other species of lemurs.

Star-Nosed Mole


One of the most awful and oddest-looking creatures in the planet is the Star-nosed Mole or Condylura cristata. This small mole inhabits wet low areas of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It has eleven pairs of pink fleshy appendages ringing their snout which are used as a touch organ.

Reasons for you to consider it a pet:

  • It has more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors which are use to feel its way around.
  • Easy to maintain and its foods are varied which includes small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks.
  • You can bring it along with you when you go for a swimming because it is a good swimmer.
  • If you do not have any budget left for its food, just go to a pond or stream and it will forage along the bottoms of these bodies of water.
  • It is active day and night all-year round and has been observed tunneling through the snow and swimming in ice-covered streams.
  • It is also unique because this animal is considered as the fastest-eating mammal taking as short as 120 milliseconds to identify and consume individual food items.
  • Star-nosed Mole also possess the ability to smell underwater,

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