Life above the waterline.

World's smallest fox, with oversized ears that radiate heat and detect prey moving underground.

One-humped icon of the desert that can lose 25% of its body weight in water and rebound in minutes at a waterhole.

Highly social mongoose that lives in mobs of up to 50, posting sentinels to scan the sky for raptors.

Moves by throwing loops of its body sideways across loose sand, leaving distinctive J-shaped tracks.

Long-lived burrower that spends 95% of its life underground, escaping summer heat and winter cold.

One of only two venomous lizards on Earth, recognised by its beaded orange and black skin.

Tiny nocturnal rodent that hops on kangaroo-like hind legs across cool desert nights.

Critically endangered desert antelope with spiral horns and pale heat-reflecting summer coat.

Ground-dwelling cuckoo that prefers running to flying, hitting 30 km/h while chasing lizards and rattlesnakes.

Two-humped cold-desert camel with shaggy winter coats that survive temperature swings from −40 °C to +40 °C.

The Americas' largest cat, with a bite strong enough to pierce turtle shells and crocodilian skulls.

Moves so slowly that algae grow in its fur, providing camouflage and a mini-ecosystem of moths and beetles.

Tiny, vividly coloured amphibian that advertises its toxicity with electric blues, yellows, and oranges.

Largest toucan, whose enormous beak doubles as a thermal radiator — dumping heat without losing water.

Long-tailed parrot of brilliant red, blue and yellow that mates for life and can live 50 years in the wild.

Possesses one of the loudest calls of any land animal — its dawn roar carries over 5 km of forest.

The world's heaviest snake, an ambush predator of slow rivers and flooded forests.

Eusocial farmer that cuts leaf fragments to cultivate a fungus deep underground — its actual food.

The most powerful eagle on Earth, with talons longer than a grizzly bear's claws — it plucks sloths and monkeys from the canopy.

World's largest rodent — a semi-aquatic, deeply social grazer often seen with birds perched on its back.

Earth's largest land animal — matriarchal, deeply social, and capable of long-distance infrasonic communication.

The fastest land animal, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in three seconds in pursuit of gazelle.

Migratory equid whose dazzling stripes confuse predators and biting flies alike.

The only truly social big cat, hunting cooperatively in prides led by related females.

Tallest land animal, with a 2-metre neck and a 50 cm prehensile tongue used to strip acacia thorns.

Endurance pack hunter with mottled coats unique to each individual, succeeding in 80% of chases.

Engine of the Great Migration — 1.5 million animals on a 3,000 km annual loop chasing rain.

Long-legged raptor that hunts on foot, dispatching snakes with downward kicks of crushing force.

Critically endangered browser with a pointed prehensile lip used to strip leaves from thorny shrubs.

Massive bovid that travels in herds of hundreds and is famous for ganging up on lions to defend calves.

Apex predator of the sea ice, with translucent fur and black skin that absorbs solar heat.

Compact, thick-furred fox that turns from brown in summer to pure white in winter for camouflage.

Only deer species in which both sexes grow antlers, and one of the few mammals that can see ultraviolet light.

Heavy, diurnal owl whose populations boom and crash in step with lemming cycles.

Ice-age survivor whose long guard hair and dense qiviut underwool insulate it through −40 °C winters.

Compact body, short ears and dense white winter coat let it survive −30 °C weather above the treeline.

Famously cyclic rodent whose population booms and crashes drive entire Arctic food webs.

Tusked giant of the high north — uses its sensitive whiskers to find clams on the seafloor.

Stocky carnivorous mustelid with bone-crushing jaws that can take down prey many times its size in deep snow.

Migratory waterfowl whose nesting colonies can exceed a million birds along Arctic coasts.

Highly intelligent pack hunter whose return to many ecosystems has triggered cascading recoveries.

Massive omnivore that gorges through summer to survive months of winter torpor.

Adaptable, intelligent omnivore now thriving in cities as well as woodlands across four continents.

Graceful browser that flashes the white underside of its tail to warn the herd of danger.

Dexterous nocturnal omnivore whose problem-solving skills rival those of small primates.

Powerful nocturnal raptor whose silent flight and crushing grip make it the apex of small-mammal predators.

Striped ground squirrel that hoards thousands of seeds in larder caches inside its burrow.

Stocky social mustelid that excavates multi-generational burrow systems called setts.

The largest deer on Earth, with bull antlers spanning nearly two metres — a solitary browser of wetlands and forest edges.

Tufted-eared mid-size cat that ambushes deer and hares across snowy temperate and boreal forest.

Ghost of the Himalayas, with a tail nearly as long as its body for balance on cliffs.

One of the world's largest flying birds, riding thermals for hundreds of kilometres without a single wingbeat.

Shaggy bovid adapted to extreme altitude — its blood carries oxygen far more efficiently than lowland cattle.

Sure-footed climber whose split hooves with rubbery pads grip cliff faces almost no other large mammal can use.

Wild goat with massive ridged horns that scales near-vertical dam walls to lick mineral salts.

Powerful diurnal raptor that dives on prey at over 240 km/h.

Burrowing rodent that hibernates for up to nine months a year in family colonies.

Goat-antelope with hooked horns that bounds across alpine cliffs at 50 km/h.

Shaggy wild goat with a thick reddish winter mane, perfectly adapted to steep rocky terrain just below the snowline.

High-altitude wild sheep whose blue-grey coat blends into shadowed Himalayan cliffs — the snow leopard's primary prey.