If you follow the trends of the Japanese Twittersphere, as all humans seeking happiness should, you may have watched this picture go viral recently:
Meet the sea bunny, Japan’s new favorite animal. While this creature does look like a fluffy little rabbit, it’s actually a species of hermaphroditic sea slug. Pretty cute, right?
In honor of this Internet sensation, I’ve compiled a list of 10 Animals That Look Like Other Animals, But Aren’t.
1.
You might be saying to yourself, “Aww, Bambi is watching his dorky younger brother use his legs for the first time!” but after I remind you that Bambi’s mother died less than a year after his birth and was, thus, unable to provide him with a sibling, you may start to realize that the picture on the left is not a fawn. It's a chevrotain, commonly known as a mouse-deer (though it is more closely related to giraffes than mouse or deer).
2.
These pigs make me uncomfortable, the kind of uncomfortable you get when you see your middle school math teacher on a date at Chipotle—embarrassed and queasy, with a slight craving for carnitas burritos.
3.
If you’re ophidiophobic, only one of these pictures should make you soil yourself. That's right, the picture on the left is not a snake, but a legless lizard. (The one on the right is an adder.) Most legless lizards have eyelids, but snakes do not. If you ever come face to face with a snake, wait for it to blink before running away—it might be a harmless lizard.
4.
The frog and the toad are often mistaken for one another, but these pictures illustrate an easy way to tell the difference between the two. Toads tend to be pessimistic and reluctant; while frogs are generally more optimistic and willing face their destiny. As you can see, the creature on the left is clearly a toad and the one on the right is obviously a frog.
5.
If you’re like me, it probably took you a couple of hours to spot the difference between these two animals. The bird on the left looks so much like a butterfly, but this is simply a classic case of confusing a Northern saw-whet owl with a juvenile boreal owl.
6.
I don’t think the dog on the left looks at all like the lion on the right, but in 2013 a Chinese zoo had this dog in a lion exhibit, so maybe my vision is off. Either way, both animals look really happy to be behind bars.
7.
Don’t be ashamed if you think these two fireflies are of the same species, other fireflies make the same mistake all the time. The insect on the left is of the genus Photinus while the one on the right is of the genus Photuris. Female Photuris fireflies mimic the mating signals of Photinus firelflies, luring firefly lovers to her leaf and eating them upon arrival.
8.
If you guessed that the creature on the left was a stick, you’re right. The creature on the right is a stick insect, an animal so well-camouflaged to its environment that it takes the sharpest eyes to discern a living animal from immobile twigs. (Though, when I picked up the stick on the left, it moved a bit. Must’ve been the wind.)
9.
I know Bacteria aren’t members of the Animal kingdom (they don’t even fall into the same Domain), but these creatures are twinning too hard for me to ignore. E. coli is on the right, while Salmonella is on the left. They’re so cute and fuzzy—I can’t imagine them causing any harm.
10.
Of course, I must leave you with two animals that look more alike than any other pair of species coexisting on this rolling marble of a planet that we call Earth: otters and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Good work, Nature.
