The Amami Rabbit, or the Amami Black Rabbit (奄美のくろうさぎ) (Pentalagus furnessi) is the most primitive rabbit existing today, and only lives on two small islands in Ryukyu called Amami Oshima and Toku-no-Shima in Japan. Its characteristics include long claws, plump body, and slow speed - unlike typical rabbits, it is not very fast, and it also can only bear one child (or two) at a time. To protect its young, it digs holes for them to hide in during the day, which it digs open at night to nurse them. To close the hole again, the rabbit pats dirt and leaves on top, and then goes to a cave to sleep. Amami Rabbits are also known for their calling noises, which sound something like the call of a pika.

The rabbit is unfortunately highly endangered, because of loss of habitat (because of large companies building golf courses or resorts there) and also because local people released non-native mongooses to the islands, to destroy poisonous snakes, but the mongooses quickly found easy prey in the Amami rabbits.

Images:

• A young looking out of its hole
• The mother at the entrance of its cave
• The mother patting down the entrance of her youngs' hole
• A young exploring the outside of the hole

The Purple Frog, or Pignose Frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is an enigmatic, 7 cm long ancient frog living underground in the Western Ghats, India. This frog has its own family (Nasikabatrachidae) and is named for its dark purple color. A look at its face will show you very clearly how unique it is. This frog was only discovered in 2003, although local people had known of it for ages. It spends its time underground all year, except for two weeks during the monsoon to mate, making it very hard to find. Some people say it looks something like a jelly doughnut.

Images:

• A Purple Frog (top view).