Donors are invited to sponsor a species, and track its conservation progress through blogs and discussion groups on the Web site, http://www.edgeofexistence.org. One million dollars is needed to fund the conservation projects, Baillie said.
Researchers hope the catalog of bizarre creatures might attract younger donors unimpressed by more charismatic seals or pandas.
"The younger generation is more interested in the weird and wonderful," he said.
There's no lack of either. Many are freakishly large, or small, or just long-lived. The hairy-nosed wombat can grow bigger than a dog, while the slender loris's 4.7 inch frame is dominated by a pair of huge night vision eyes. Mountain pigmy possums can live 12 years, a remarkable age for a 1-ounce creature.
Others, like Madagascar's aye-aye, are just weird. The oddly-shaped primate sports an unsettlingly long, skeletal middle finger it uses to scrape insect larvae from holes in trees.
Still, some have undeniable charm, like the .07-ounce bumblebee bat or hairy-eared dwarf lemur, the world's smallest primate.
"There's nothing like them when they go," Baillie said.
