15:00 19 December 2013
Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world. Here are this year's highlights. Michael Marshall
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In the dark expanses of the Sonoran desert in the US, a terrifying creature stalks the night, searching for fresh meat.
Even the venomous scorpion cannot escape this savage monster. The predator ignores its painful sting and cruelly breaks the scorpion's tail by pummelling it into the ground, then bites it and feasts on its flesh. Throwing its head back, the murderous animal howls at the moon. No, it's not the mythical Chupacabra. It is the southern grasshopper mouse, the only carnivorous mouse in North America. Read more
(Image: Michael and Patricia Fogden/Minden/NGS)
