1. African cheetah
   African lion
2. Bengal tiger
   South American jaguar

The African Cheetah is the fastest of all the big cats, able to chase down its prey, usually gazelles and impalas, and wrestle them to the ground for the kill. Strangely, this big cat still has not been adopted as a mascot for a car brand.

1. Hippo
   African elephant
2. Howling monkey
   Fruit bat

The African Elephant is massive, towering creature in danger for its very existence. These gentle creatures are hunted for their ivory, which is prized on the black market for its beauty and its alleged medicinal properties.

1. Indian Elephant
   Liger
2. Muntjac Deer
   African Lion

The African lion species live in large packs called prides, and while there is a social ladder, even the lowliest lion is still a member of the pride.

1. African Penguin
   Puffin
2. Orange Chin Parrot
   Newt

The African penguin is an endangered species, with only about 52,000 African Penguins remaining. They keep cool by spending most of their time in the water, and hanging out in burrows and the shade when they climb out of the sea. They use their wings to swim and hunt fish, instead of flying.

1. Timber Wolf
   Anaconda
2. Boa Constrictor
   Jackrabbit

Anacondas are the heaviest and largest snakes, some weighing as much as 550 lbs! They kill their prey by using their powerful muscles to squeeze their prey to death. Their number one predator is human beings, to use them for their skin and meat, or who kill them out of fear.

1. Anna's Hummingbird
   Common Crow
2. Falcon
   American Bald Eagle

Anna's hummingbirds' fabulous geographical range is attributed to its diet, which includes many types of insects as well as pollen from flowers. For this reason, Anna's hummingbird can survive in the frozen north even during the winter.

1. Liger
   Crocodile
2. Andean bear
   Horse

All bears can climb trees, but Andean bears are experts. These bears spend a lot of their time in trees, even when they sleep by building a sort of platform bed in the trees. As they live in a tropical climate, Andean bears do not hibernate, able to hunt all twelve months of the year.

1. American Bald Eagle
   Tree Sloth
2. Vampire Bat
   Mountain Ape

The American bald eagle is an enormous bird, standing up to 4 feet tall. With its massive, 8 foot wings, it can dive at prey at speeds up to 200mph. It has developed an interesting quality which causes it to lose feathers symmetrically, ensuring neither wing had more lift.

1. Honey Badger
   Honey Bee
2. Wolverine
   Bottle Nose Dolphin

The simple honey bee has a special pocket in its body where it collects nectar from flowers, to regurgitate at the hive so it can be turned into delicious honey!

1. Vampire Bat
   Puffer Fish
2. Blue-tongued skink
   Rhino

The blue-tongued skink is a meek reptile with plenty of natural predators. When these lizards feel threatened, they stick out their shockingly blue tongues to startle their enemies and give them time to escape.

1. Brown Bear
   Costa Rican Katydid
2. Peruvian Firestick
   Gopher Tortoise

The brown bear spends 4 to 6 months per years sleeping. In this state, known as hibernation, the bear's heart rate and metabolism slow down, allowing it to live more efficiently while resting.

1. Gopher Tortoise
   Waxy Tree Frog
2. Burrowing Owl
   Mudpuppy

The burrowing owl is a strange bird that, unlike its peers, lives not just on the ground, but in the ground! These birds take over holes dug by moles, prairie dogs and other burrowing animals, and turns them into subterranean nests.

1. Coconut Crab
   Spectacled Langur
2. Golden-breasted Starling
   Osage Copperhead

Coconut crabs are massive crabs that have evolved to be camouflaged on coconut trees, which they do indeed climb for the coconuts. Don't get your toes caught in their pincers! These crabs are strong enough to clip coconuts from the tree and tear them open with just their claws.

1. Dwarf Zebu
   Caribbean Flamingo
2. Painted Dog
   Canvasback

Caribbean flamingos are huge, social birds that get their coloring from the pigments in the food they filter from the ocean with their strange bills. These birds build nests, with both mother and father participating, and then lay just one egg which they work to protect from the environment while they wait for it to hatch.

1. Painted Dog
   California Sea Lion
2. Horned Guan
   Waxy Tree Frog

California sea lions are a lot like seals, except that seals just have little holes but no ears that stick out. These sea lions communicate by barking and wailing, and they can recognize their relatives even in huge crowds, just from the sounds of their voices.

1. Golden-breasted Starling
   Spectacled Langur
2. Coquerel's Sifaka
   Kookaburra

Coquerel's sifaka is a native of Madagascar that lives on a diet of insects and fruit, jumping from tree to tree. Their name "sifaka" is what their distress call sounds like. When they detect a threat, they shout this call, warning their broodmates.

1. Blacksmith Plover
   Peruvian Firestick
2. Green-and-black Poison Dart Frog
   Dung Beetle

Dung beetles survive on a diet of animal manure, and so they like nothing better than living in the shadow of large animals who like to eat!

1. Painted Dog
   Fiji Iguana
2. Canvasback
   Painted Dog

The Fiji iguana is an elegantly striped lizard that spends most of its time living in the trees, coming down only occasionally to do things like lay eggs. Male Fiji iguanas warn off other males by bobbing their heads around like they're in a nightclub.

1. Horned Guan
   Osage Copperhead
2. Fossa
   Costa Rican Katydid

The Fossa is a strange creature resembling many species of kanid and big cat, but it's actually a sort of civet or mongoose. From nose to tail, they can be up to 6 feet long, but about half of that length is just their tails.

1. Waxy Tree Frog
   Hippopotamus
2. North American River Otter
   Blue Whales

Hippos don't float! They locomote under water by walking on the floor of the river, lake, or stream. It's a good thing they can hold their breaths for up to five minutes, meaning they can cross larger bodies of water, even when the walk is long.

1. Emu
   Mudpuppy
2. Golden-breasted Starling
   Kookaburra

Emu are large, flightless birds that wear a sort of coat of feathers not meant to keep them aloft, but to keep them warm. These birds lay eggs which are then protected by the males. When the chicks are born, they can immediately run around and collect their own food, though they stick with their fathers for a while.

1. Costa Rican Katydid
   Osage Copperhead
2. Galápagos tortoise
   Gopher Tortoise

The aptly named Galápagos tortoise is a huge, slow moving creature that lives for many decades, sometimes more than a century. Though they sport huge shells, these creatures aren't too weighed down. Their shells aren't solid, but instead they are a sort of honeycomb of chambers, limiting the extent of damage, and keeping the whole structure very light.

1. Gecko
   New Guinea Crocodile Skink
2. Dwarf Zebu
   Dwarf Caiman

The gecko is a strange lizard with a peculiar footprint composed of many tiny folds of skin that create a huge amount of friction when pressed against a surface, even a window. As a result, geckos can walk up walls!

1. Giant Panda
   North American River Otter
2. Painted Dog
   Horned Guan

Giant pandas (which are indeed a kind of bear, not a weasel) live on a diet of bamboo, lots of bamboo. They eat the stalks and the leaves, any part of the plant they can get a hold of. As a result, they have evolved teeth that can tear up bamboo like a necktie in a paper shredder, and special bones in their paws that allow them to grasp the bamboo.

1. Canvasback
   Gila Monster
2. Peruvian Firestick
   Spectacled Langur

The gila (pronounced "HEAL-ah) monster is a very cool looking lizard found in the American southwest. When it attacks prey or protects itself from predators (or hapless humans) it uses its special, hollow teeth that actually inject venom into what it bites.

1. Mudpuppy
   Blacksmith Plover
2. Giraffe
   Kookaburra

Giraffes, formerly called "Camel-Leopards", are the tallest land animals alive, standing up to 18 feet tall!

1. Costa Rican Katydid
   New Guinea Crocodile Skink
2. Western Lowland Gorilla
   North American River Otter

Standing up to 6 feet tall, western lowland gorillas are the largest primates on Earth. Social animals, these gorillas live in communities called troops, thus giving everyone a reason to confuse actors with western lowland gorillas.

1. Waxy Tree Frog
   Golden-breasted Starling
2. Honey Badger
   Gopher Tortoise

The honey badger is a tough animal built to defend itself by biting back, wriggling around, and by its incredible immunity to venoms. Honey badgers hunt things like scorpions and poisonous snakes, but somehow survive the bites!

1. Peruvian Firestick
   Secretary Bird
2. Dwarf Zebu
   North American River Otter

The secretary bird's head is the dead giveaway: It's a hunter, with eyes arranged for depth perception. These birds live on the African steppe, and use their predatory heads and long legs to hunt in the tall grass the way a raptor would watch from the sky, looking for prey. Once their huge legs snatch up prey, the bird bashes it on the ground and eats it.

1. Komodo Dragon
   New Guinea Crocodile Skink
2. Horned Guan
   Canvasback

The Komodo dragon is a huge lizard that looks like something out of a 1950s B-movie. These creatures are great hunters, and in the event they can't win their fights outright, they have a backup plan: their saliva poisons their prey, causing necrosis and death. These lizards don't need to be able to run quickly, since if you get away, you don't have long before you fall prey to their secret weapon.

1. Mang Mountain Pit Viper
   North American River Otter
2. Painted Dog
   Peruvian Firestick

The Mang Mountain pit viper is a venomous snake that can kill with a bite, but generally prefers to stay out of the way of humans. It's so good at this, we didn't even know it existed until 1989. The Mang Mountain pit viper lays eggs that look a lot like chickens' eggs, which they protect with every once of venom they have. If you spot a bunch of eggs under a ledge on Mang Mountain, just steer clear, OK?

1. Costa Rican Katydid
   Toucan
2. Dwarf Zebu
   Spectacled Langur

Toucans, which have been seen throwing food to each other as a form of courtship, are one of the most important animals in the rain forest. They eat fruit, and then scatter the seeds throughout the forest, replanting trees and bushes.

1. Koala Bear
   Golden-breasted Starling
2. Mudpuppy
   Waxy Tree Frog

Koalas are not bears at all, but marsupials who rear their young initially in pouches, like kangaroos. Koalas eat eucalyptus, which is difficult to digest, so they add a little grit to their diets to better digest their food.

1. Apple Snail
   Gopher Tortoise
2. Laughing Kookaburra
   New Guinea Crocodile Skink

The laughing kookaburra is the biggest of the kingfisher family, an animal found in places like Australia and New Zealand. This creature's call sounds like laughter, and has been used as a sound effect in film for monkeys!

1. Leaf Cutter Ant
   Meerkat
2. Palm Cockatoo
   Costa Rican Katydid

The meerkat is a strange creature that survives because of teamwork. One meerkat keeps a lookout for predators while the others go to work looking for food. At the slightest sign of danger, the guard (they are actually called that!) barks out a warning and dives back into its burrow, followed by all the other ones.