There are many species around the world that could have made it onto this highly subjective list: animals, birds and invertebrates with expressions that scream, 'Not today, pal’, and encourage you to walk in the other direction.
Sometimes – as with a species like the thorny devil – this grumpy look is a useful indicator of the danger an animal could do you, but more often than not it’s entirely unrepresentative of a creature’s behaviour: you can’t really blame a blobfish for looking disgruntled, for example.
Whatever the reason, we think this is a great excuse to celebrate some of the charming misfits of the animal kingdom.
10 grumpiest animals in the world
Red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini)
Grumpy-looking in a sad clown sort of way, the red-lipped batfish is a bottom-dweller living only in the Pacific Ocean around the Galapagos Islands. It’s found between 3m and 120m down, and gets about mainly by walking, rather than swimming, using modified fins as froglike legs.
What looks like an enormous nose is actually an appendage called an illicium, thought to emit chemicals that lure in its prey of small fish and invertebrates – this species is one of 120 fishes in the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfish. This adaptation is important, given how awkwardly the batfish moves about. The reason for the smear of red across its lips remains a mystery, though scientists have suggested that it makes the batfish stand out to potential mates.
Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla and Gorilla beringei)
There’s a good reason why we find gorillas so endlessly captivating – as one of our closest relatives (only chimpanzees and bonobos share more of our DNA), they remind us of ourselves. This has a lot to do with facial expressions and body language, with gorillas doing a very strong line in human-style grumpy looks and poses, from furrowed brows and clenched fists to slouches and crossed arms.
There are two species of gorilla – western (Gorilla gorilla) and eastern (Gorilla beringei) –which both live in equatorial Africa, on either side of the Congo Basin forest. Both are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, at risk of poaching, disease and habitat degradation and loss.
Eastern screech owl (Megascops asio)
This petite North American owl doesn’t really warrant its aggressive-sounding name – its call is actually quite a mellow whinnying sound, which can be heard across its woodland habitat, including in farmland and urban settings.
While its call may not be grumpy, its appearance certainly is, with stern eyebrow plumage leading the way to small, tufted ears. The owl will raise its ear tufts when threatened, as well as squinting its eyes, creating an overall pretty scary look.
Hunting by night, the birds can be spotted tucked away in tree holes in the day, though its only their bright yellow-green eyes that will give them away, so cleverly does their plumage resemble the grooves and whorls of bark.
Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus)
Spare a thought for the poor old blobfish. Known as the world’s ugliest fish because of its appearance after being brought to the surface – gelatinous form, tiny eyes, drooping nose and mouth – this deep ocean species actually looks pretty unremarkable in its natural habitat.
Where the blobfish lives, some 600m-1,200m down, in the midnight zone of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, the water pressure is so great that the species has no need of strong bones or thick muscles. Instead, large quantities of water and fat help them withstand some of the most extreme conditions on earth. Not surprising then that, having undergone the process of very fast depressurisation, the blobfish looks very different at the surface.
Thorny devil (Moloch horridus)
Hard to imagine a less approachable looking species than this desert-dwelling Australian lizard, which is covered head to tail in sharp thorn-like spikes. This armour protects its owner from predators – at just 20cm from nose to tail, the thorny devil would otherwise make a tempting meal for plenty of larger creatures – but the spines have another function too.
So-called hygroscopic channels between the lizard’s spikes direct any dew that forms on its skin towards its mouth, via the magic of capillary action. In this way, the thorny devil stays hydrated in its arid scrubland habitat. Grumpy-looking it may be, but then you might be too, if you had a scientific name combining the Latin word for horrible and the name of a child-eating god from John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Bush stone-curlew (Burhinus grallarius)
There’s something about the bush stone-curlew that suggests its displeased with you. Perhaps it’s the slight downwards slant of its bill, or the bold white markings above its large yellow eyes, well adapted for spotting insects, molluscs, seeds, and small lizards and mammals in the dark. Or it could be the bird’s eerie night-time call.
Whatever it is, this displeasure is not surprising when you consider the fact that this ground-dwelling bird used to be quite common in mainland Australia, but has suffered a decline thanks to predation by feral cats and foxes, plus pressure on its habitat. Active at night, the bush stone-curlew makes good use of its grey-brown plumage to stay well camouflaged in leaf litter on the forest floor during daylight hours.
When it comes to breeding, however, the species is far from inconspicuous, performing an elaborate courtship dance that sees individuals stand upright with wings and neck outstretched, before stamping their feet on the ground for an hour or more, while calling loudly.
Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
The world’s largest rodent specialises in looking rather worried, an expression it perfects thanks to a quivering nose and whiskers, set back ears and large, watchful eyes. The capybara is right to be concerned – despite its size (up to around 50kg), it’s prey for a large number of other creatures in its South American habitat, from caimans in the water, to anacondas and jaguars on land, to ocelots and harpy eagles in the sky.
The species, which is semi-aquatic, has a few tricks to deploy, however: they’re strong swimmers, with partially webbed feet to help them get around in the water; and having eyes, nose and ears on top of their heads mean they can stay alert when partially submerged.
Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul)
If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the past decade, you’re probably familiar with Grumpy Cat, the American celebrity feline who became famous for her permanently disgruntled expression. We don’t deal with domesticated animals here at BBC Wildlife, so Grumpy Cat herself doesn’t make this list, but her wild cousin, the Pallas’s cat, certainly does.
With its small, low set ears, downturned mouth and whiskers, and teardrop facial markings, this cat of the Central Asian steppe is the epitome of standoffish. The species ranges across high mountain grasslands stretching from China to Iran, living at altitudes of between 3,000m and 5,000m, well insulated from the cold by its extremely long, dense fur. Those characteristic ears enable it to keep a low profile while hunting for small prey, including mammals and ground-dwelling birds, in a landscape with very little cover.
- When India's grumpiest cat moved into a house in the Himalayas, the family who lived there moved out
Black rain frog (Breviceps fuscus)
There are plenty of grumpy looking amphibians out there, but the black rain frog, of South Africa’s Cape Fold Mountains, is the only one to make our list.
Also known as the avocado frog because of its bumpy brown or black skin and rotund form, this species is fossorial, spending most of its time in underground. It’s well adapted for this existence, with short limbs ending in flat feet that enable it to move soil away as it burrow backwards. With feet like this, hopping and swimming are impossible, but that’s not a problem because it lays its eggs underground rather than in water – they hatch as froglets, not tadpoles, after being guarded by the male of the species.
The animal’s protruding eyes and downturned mouth look grumpier still when it puffs up in response to a threat, thought to be a strategy to prevent predators from being able to remove it from its burrow.
Grumpy dwarfgoby (newly described species of Sueviota)
The grumpy dwarfgoby may be little – measuring just 1.5cm long – but it is fierce in appearance, with large teeth protruding from a downturned lower jaw. The species is new to science, having been described in an academic paper in autumn 2024 following the collection of 10 individuals from several locations in the Red Sea.
There were eight species of Sueviota already described, found on coral reefs from the northern Red Sea across to northern Australia – scientists initially mistook the new species for its cousin, the fiery dwarfgoby (Sueviota pyrios). The grumpy dwarfgobies specimens were found in caves and overhangs at depths from 10m to 53m, well camouflaged against red coralline algae.
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