Blue whale
Balaenoptera musculus
The largest animal known ever to have existed — confirmed lengths of up to about 30 m. [source]
The fact cabinet
41 specimens, one checked fact apiece, each with a link to where we checked it. Pin your favourite to the fridge.
Peregrine falcon
Falco peregrinus
Famous for its hunting stoop: speeds over 320 km/h are widely claimed, though radar has reliably clocked about 184 km/h. [source]
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
The fastest land animal, sprinting at roughly 93–104 km/h. [source]
Greenland shark
Somniosus microcephalus
The longest-lived vertebrate known: at least 272 years, possibly far more. [source]
Tardigrade
Phylum Tardigrada
Microscopic “water bears” that have survived exposure to outer space. [source]
Common octopus
Octopus vulgaris
Octopuses have three hearts and blue, copper-based blood. [source]
Axolotl
Ambystoma mexicanum
A salamander that stays in its larval form for life and can regrow lost limbs. Critically Endangered in the wild. [source]
Platypus
Ornithorhynchus anatinus
An egg-laying mammal; males carry a venomous spur on the hind foot. [source]
Arctic tern
Sterna paradisaea
Makes the longest regular migration of any animal, chasing two summers a year. [source]
European hedgehog
Erinaceus europaeus
A largely nocturnal insect-eater that hibernates through the winter. [source]
Basking shark
Cetorhinus maximus
The second-largest living fish — and it lives on plankton. [source]
Manx shearwater
Puffinus puffinus
One ringed bird from Copeland was at least 55 years old in 2003. [source]
Red-necked wallaby
Notamacropus rufogriseus
An Australian marsupial — with a wild population on the Isle of Man, descended from 1960s–70s escapes from a wildlife park. [source]
Red-billed chough
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
A crow with a long curved red bill, red legs and acrobatic flight. It pairs for life. [source]
Western honey bee
Apis mellifera
Colonies coordinate foraging with the “waggle dance”. [source]
Common frog
Rana temporaria
The only native amphibian on the Isle of Man. [source]
Naked mole-rat
Heterocephalus glaber
A eusocial mammal with a queen, like a bee colony — and the longest-lived rodent known. [source]
Peacock mantis shrimp
Odontodactylus scyllarus
Mantis shrimps have between 12 and 16 types of photoreceptor cells. [source]
Emperor penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri
The tallest and heaviest penguin, recorded diving to 535 m. [source]
African bush elephant
Loxodonta africana
The largest living land animal. [source]
Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
The tallest living land animal. Its long neck comes from lengthened vertebrae — each over 28 cm — not extra ones. [source]
Bee hummingbird
Mellisuga helenae
The smallest bird in the world; females weigh about 2.6 g. [source]
Snowy (wandering) albatross
Diomedea exulans
Has the largest wingspan of any living bird, up to about 3.7 m. [source]
Common swift
Apus apus
Young non-breeding swifts can stay airborne for up to ten months at a stretch. [source]
Common starfish
Asterias rubens
Most starfish can regrow lost arms — and they have no centralised brain. [source]
Komodo dragon
Varanus komodoensis
The largest living lizard: up to about 3 m long. [source]
Common ostrich
Struthio camelus
The largest living bird, laying the largest eggs of any living land animal. [source]
Kākāpō
Strigops habroptila
The world’s only flightless parrot, and the heaviest. It is nocturnal. [source]
Grey seal
Halichoerus grypus
Found on both sides of the North Atlantic. The Isle of Man’s Coastal Code asks you to keep 50 m away. [source]
Hen harrier
Circus cyaneus
Manx BirdLife counted 38 territorial pairs on the Isle of Man in 2022. [source]
Stoat
Mustela erminea
The Irish stoat is the only Manx land mammal shown to have reached the island on its own. [source]
Tuatara
Sphenodon punctatus
Looks like a lizard but isn’t: the only living member of the order Rhynchocephalia. [source]
Galápagos tortoise
Chelonoidis niger
The largest living tortoise, weighing up to 417 kg. [source]
Sea sponge
Phylum Porifera
Sponges are filter feeders with no true tissues or organs. The name Porifera means “pore bearer”. [source]
Moon jellyfish
Aurelia aurita
Recognisable by four horseshoe-shaped gonads visible through the top of the bell. [source]
Common earthworm
Lumbricus terrestris
Built as a segmented tube within a tube, usually with bristles (setae) on every segment. [source]
Stag beetle
Lucanus cervus
Males use their oversized, antler-like mandibles to wrestle each other. [source]
Ocean quahog
Arctica islandica
One clam, nicknamed “Ming”, was 507 years old. [source]
Manx Loaghtan sheep
Ovis aries
A native Manx breed of sheep that usually has four horns — occasionally six. [source]
Eastern blue-tongued skink
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides
Flashes a startling blue tongue when threatened. [source]
Common lizard
Zootoca vivipara
Gives birth to live young over most of its range, and is the Isle of Man’s only native reptile. [source]
Loose notes found at the back of the drawer
- Turritopsis dohrnii can revert to its polyp stage — the so-called immortal jellyfish. [source]
- Tardigrades were first described in 1773 by J. A. E. Goeze, who called them “little water bears”. [source]
- Sloth fur can host algae, giving the animal a greenish tinge. [source]
- The closest living relatives of whales are hippos. [source]
- Nearly all mammals have seven neck vertebrae; manatees and two-toed sloths have six, three-toed sloths nine. [source]
- The Manx cat — a breed with a short tail or none at all — is specifically connected with the Isle of Man. [source]