Unusual Animals: The Bongo and The Capybara

The bongo is known for its graceful, spiraled horns and beautiful striped hide. Timid, well camouflaged, and mostly nocturnal, it is one of Africa's most mysterious animals. The largest of all forest antelopes, bongos measure up to four feet at the shoulder. Their color becomes darker with age, until old males are almost black. Bongos are found in rain forest with dense undergrowth, specifically in the Lowland Rain Forest of West Africa and the Congo Basin to the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan.

Is it a four-foot-long guinea pig? No, this short-tailed, sleepy-eyed beast is a capybara—the world's largest rodent. Its semi-webbed feet help make it a good swimmer, and it spends much of its time around water or wallowing in mud with other capybaras. They can survive completely underwater for five minutes!