📍 New York City Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) One of the most adaptable urban mammals in North America, thriving in city parks where it caches thousands of nuts each autumn — and forgets enough of them to plant trees. Ubiquitous year-round in New York City parks, sidewalks, and backyards; the city’s population is estimated in the tens of thousands. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Panama City White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica) A raccoon relative with a long, flexible snout it uses to root through leaf litter for invertebrates and fruit — and a banded tail nearly as long as its body. Common year-round across Panama, especially around parks, forest edges, and urban green spaces where they scavenge boldly from visitors. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Isla Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro Strawberry Poison-dart Frog (Oophaga pumilio) Barely two centimeters long but impossible to miss — this jewel-toned frog wears its toxicity on its skin, sequestering alkaloid poisons from the ants and mites it eats to become one of the most unpalatable animals in the Neotropics. The Bastimentos red morph, with its vivid scarlet body and black spots, is one of dozens of strikingly different color forms this species takes across the Bocas del Toro archipelago — making the islands a living laboratory for studying rapid color evolution. ...
📍 Cliffs of Moher, Ireland Domestic Sheep (Ovis aries) Black-faced and shaggy-coated, this is likely a Scottish Blackface cross — the breed that has grazed Ireland’s Atlantic cliffs for centuries, bred to handle wet, windy hillsides where other livestock won’t thrive. Scottish Blackface and their crosses are the most common sheep along the west coast of Ireland, grazing year-round on the exposed karst and cliff-top pastures of County Clare. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Shinobazu Pond, Tokyo Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) A small, elegant gull recognized by its dark chocolate-brown breeding hood, red bill, and pinkish-red legs — this individual’s patchy hood marks the transition between winter and summer plumage. One of Tokyo’s most familiar winter gulls, abundant at Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park from October through April; the Japanese name ユリカモメ (yurikamome) even lends its name to the city’s waterfront rail line. ...
Red Junglefowl / Feral Chicken (Gallus gallus) Domestic chickens descend from the Red Junglefowl, and feral populations worldwide revert to ancestral habits like roosting in trees — exactly what this rooster is doing. Free-ranging and feral chickens are a common sight across the tropics, thriving anywhere warm weather and scattered food let them nest and roost in the open. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Singapore Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) Also called the crab-eating macaque, this adaptable primate thrives in forests, mangroves, and urban edges across Southeast Asia. One of Singapore’s most commonly encountered wild mammals, long-tailed macaques are resident year-round and especially visible along nature trails like MacRitchie Reservoir and Bukit Timah. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Jersey City Domestic Cat (Felis catus) A solid black coat comes from a recessive variant of the agouti gene (ASIP) that switches off the tabby banding on each hair, leaving the fur uniformly dark. Free-roaming and feral cats are year-round residents throughout Jersey City, often found near restaurants and waterfronts. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Sandy Hook Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) This juvenile, likely from a spring litter, is out foraging on its own in midsummer — tawny coat not yet turned fully red. Red foxes are year-round residents of Sandy Hook and common throughout the Gateway National Recreation Area. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 Hudson River, New York City Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) One of the heaviest waterfowl in North America — a Eurasian species identified by its all-white plumage, long S-curved neck, and orange bill with a distinctive black knob at the base. Mute swans are year-round residents along the Hudson River and throughout New York City’s waterways, introduced from Europe in the 19th century and now firmly established. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map | eBird
📍 San Mateo Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) North America’s largest tree squirrel, it spends more time foraging on the ground than most tree squirrels and scatter-hoards nuts across dozens of small caches to get through winter. Melanistic individuals are usually rare, but in parts of San Mateo they are so common that an all-black coat is practically the local norm rather than the exception. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map
📍 San Mateo Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) The all-black coat comes from a recessive melanistic variant that switches off the usual rusty-orange pigment, leaving individuals uniformly dark from nose to tail. Fox squirrels are not native to California — they spread across the Bay Area after introductions in the early 20th century and now outnumber the native Western Gray Squirrel across much of San Mateo’s parks and neighborhoods. Modeled range · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0 Wikipedia | iNaturalist | Range map