Animals that start with X – Can you give me three names of animals that start with X? It sounds so uncommon since most of us just say their generic names, like a bird and other animals.
However, there are various names of animals that have X as their first alphabet. In this article, we are going to learn a lot about animals.
Besides their names, we also want to tell you about their behavior and life cycle. It is important to know each name of the animal so you can love them wholeheartedly.
It is a fun thing to learn since we all do live in a world that is full of creatures. Knowing their names will allow you to learn their basic information, behavior, and also fun facts about them.
Just read this article till the last word so you will find interesting information about the animals.
Xantus’s Hummingbird
Xantus’s Hummingbird is a hummingbird that has a medium size, and you can only find them in Baja, California. Baja has several specialty birds, but Xantus’s Hummingbird is the most distinctive one.
They only have 3.5 inches of length with 4 grams of the total weight when they have reached full maturity. This bird was named after a zoologist from Hungary named John Xantus de Vesey.
This bird loves to eat nectars they got from flowering trees and flowers. They will hit on any flower that provides a high level of sugar.
Most of their favorites are colored in red with a tubular shape. Xantus’s Hummingbird will exhibit territoriality in order to defend their nectar location.
Other than nectar, they need a huge amount of protein in order to develop their body. The protein can be gained from insects.
Just like another type of hummingbird, they are a great flyer. Other than that, they live solitary and will not migrate in a group. They do not even need to make a bonding moment before mating.
Xenarthra
Xenarthra is a mammal lineage that consists of armadillo, anteater, and sloth according to their specific species. This creature is popular because they have a feature in their lower backbone.
That area is the place where they save some extra joints, so they have stronger hips and lower back. That feature is useful for digging and getting their food from the ground.
According to the species, each species has a slightly different diet type. Sloths only eat leaves and will not take any type of food other than leaves.
The Anteaters only eat the insects, while the armadillo will eat so many types of small animals and plants. However, they have a similar metabolism which is pretty low compared to other types of mammals.
They can burn calories slower than other mammals too. This is why Xenarthra eats not as many as other mammals to keep their body fits.
Other than that, they have a slightly lower body temperature than other mammals. It is a normal thing though
Xenops
The next name of animals that start with X is Xenops. Xenops are part of Furnariidae. This is a bird family from South America, and it consists of so many species.
They will elaborate with each other to build a clay nest. The numbers of these birds are still fine, so the conservation status is Least Concern. Most of them could breed in the lowland forest with high humidity.
In order to make a nest, they will put some fibers of shredded plants in the hole. They have a small shape and live individually in the rainforest. They have various types of color, depending on their species.
Xerus Inauris
Xerus is the name of African ground squirrels. You can only find them in Africa, and there is another genus that looks similar to this one.
Basically, there are at least four different species of this squirrel, but all of them can only be found in Africa.
The ground squirrels live in the open woodlands, rocky country, or grasslands in burrows. They are also terrestrial and diurnal animals.
They take insects, bird eggs, small vertebrates, grains, pods, fruits, seeds, and roots as their foods.
Xerus is not an individual and solitary creature, considering they love to live in a colony. They also have such as similar traits and behavior prairie fogs from North America.
These squirrels never hibernate and are very social with each other. In a group, there will be 3 males and 3 females. And when the males are mature enough, they would create another new group.
Xenopus
Xenopus is described as a clawed frog. They can be found in sub-Saharan Africa, and there are at least 20 species under this genus.
They are such highly aquatic frogs, and most of them are popular to be used as a model organism for scientists’ studies.
Their body is very slippery and kind of flattened with the shape of an egg but with a streamlined look. The slippery skin is caused by the protective mucus all over their body.
Xenopus is a great swimmer with webbed yet powerful toes. Their tongue and eyelids are not moveable as well as their eardrums. Even though they are amphibians, they do not have haptoglobin runs in their blood.
When the heavy rains come, they may migrate to the ground, but they live almost their entire life aquatically. They love to stay inside the swamps, reservoirs, rivers, and lakes.
When the frogs reach the mature stage, they could be scavengers and predators at the same time. However, their unusable tongue makes them use the limb when the feeding process is on its way.
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Xinjiang Ground-jay
Xinjiang ground jay is also well known as the Biddulph’s ground jay. This bird is a species under the Corvidae family. This creature is a native bird in China.
The size is not bigger than a hand of an adult human. The main color is brownish-white and has some blue accents on the winds and top of the head.
This bird loves to live in the semi-desert areas, which allow you to spot them from Central Asia up to Mongolia.
Xinjiang ground jay shows their adaptation to living on the ground by its strong yet long legs. They can run faster and leap when they need to bound on the rocks and boulders perfectly.
They can probe and dig by using their thick curved bill. The conservation status is Near Threatened, and that is caused by habitat degradation and fragmentation. And this is the end of animals that start with X.