圖文閱讀:動物世界1

斐濟羣島 Fiji Islands

在斐濟羣島的水域中，帝王蝦和寄居蟹消失隱祕在大豹海蔘皮膚上豹紋中。海蔘用它皮膚上的粘液提供食物給這些甲殼類動物，而當它受到威脅的時候，則會把有毒污穢的胃部器官噴射出來，以保護自己。
Photograph by Tim Laman
In the waters of the Fiji Islands, an emperor shrimp and a commensal crab nearly vanish in the calico pattern of a large leopard sea cucumber. The sea cucumber provides food for the crustaceans in the form of mucus on its skin and defends itself by ejecting its toxic stomach when danger threatens
錘頭鯊 Hammerhead Shark, Bahamas

外表上看起來原始，長着巨大的錘狀頭，就像圖上這隻一樣的錘頭鯊，實則是鯊魚裏進化最先進的種類。它的拉開式眼睛和鼻孔提供敏銳的外部感覺，嘴上細小的感受器能助它精確捕食。許多鋒利的牙齒則是盡享美味的工具。
Photograph by Brian SkerrY
Primordial in appearance, great hammerheads, like this one near the Bahamas, are actually among evolution’s most advanced sharks. Wide-set eyes and nostrils provide keen peripheral senses, and tiny electroreceptors on its snout help it pinpoint prey. Dozens of serrated teeth do the rest.
螳螂 Stick Mantid, Cameroon

在大約1800種螳螂中，大多將他們的時間花在靜坐和等待中，看起來猶如虔誠的祈禱者，常被稱爲“祈禱螳螂”。這些既像擁有高超捕獲技巧的獵人又似隱祕刺客的合掌螳螂，以神祕的雙重身份的讓人類爲之癡迷了數千年，古代希臘人最早在神祕學中使用到這個詞mantis【螳螂】——預言者。
Photograph by Mark Moffett
Most of the roughly 1,800 species of mantids-often called praying mantises-spend their time sitting and waiting, seemingly at prayer. These highly skilled hunters and masters of disguise have fascinated humans for thousands of years; the ancient Greeks first used the term mantis, meaning “prophet.”
北極狐 Arctic Fox, Hudson Bay, Canada

在加拿大哈德遜灣，一隻神祕的北極狐悄悄地跨越被雪覆蓋的山脊。這些不比小貓大很多、看似脆弱的北方哺乳動物，自始至終都衷誠地在貧困和嚴寒的極北茁壯地成長。
Photograph by Norbert Rosing
A stealthy arctic fox steals across a snow-patched ridge in Canada’s Hudson Bay. Not much larger than a big housecat, these seemingly delicate northern mammals are as hearty as they come, thriving in the privation and bitter cold of the Arctic north.