Medium
Creatures with real weapons and little interest in using them on anything your size.
Golden Eagle
A hunter with a wingspan of up to 2.3 meters that dives at up to 120 mph (193 km/h) and, on autumn migration across eastern North America, rides mostly on wind pushed up by ridges.
Golden Jackal
The Eurasian canid that split from Africa's look-alike golden wolf more than a million years ago, then spread fast across Europe in the last century.
Goliath Birdeater
The heaviest spider in the world, a 6-ounce rainforest tarantula with fangs that can pierce human skin and stinging hairs it can release.
Great Barracuda
A long, tube-shaped hunter with two sets of razor-sharp teeth that chops big fish in half.
Greenland Shark
The longest-lived vertebrate known to science, growing under a centimeter a year, with females not sexually mature until at least 156 years old, give or take 22.
Highland Cattle
A long, shaggy coat, handlebar horns, and roots in Scotland going back to the 6th century.
House Mouse
A 12 to 30 gram squatter whose love songs are too high for human ears.
Human Botfly
A bumblebee lookalike that glues its eggs to a blood-feeding carrier, usually a mosquito or a tick, which delivers them when it feeds.
Humpback Whale
The bubble-ring hunter whose songs ripple from one population to the next.
Iberian Lynx
The tufted-eared rabbit specialist of Iberia's scrubland that clawed its way back from fewer than 100 cats.
Japanese Giant Salamander
Up to five feet of living river boulder that breathes through its skin, hunts by smell and vibration, and gives off a peppery smell when stressed.
Japanese Macaque
The world's northernmost wild monkey, meeting -20°C mountain winters with long fur, huddles and, in one valley, a hot-spring soak that may help keep it warm.
Lion's Mane Jellyfish
Often called the world's longest jellyfish, with tentacles speculated to trail up to 120 feet through Arctic and temperate seas.
Mute Swan
Not actually mute: it hisses, snorts and twirls with its wings raised.
North American Beaver
Self-sharpening orange teeth strengthened with iron, and an ecosystem engineer that dams streams into ponds.
Ocelot
Dark spots that sometimes link into chains across golden fur, on a solitary night hunter whose eyes see much better in the dark than ours.
Peacock Mantis Shrimp
The brightly colored reef hunter whose club strike hits twice: once with the limb, then again with collapsing bubbles.
Peregrine Falcon
The sky's guided missile, folding into a 320 km/h (200 mph) stoop with the same navigation math built into real missiles.
Plains Zebra
Stripes linked to biting flies, a coat as unique as a fingerprint, and a yearly Serengeti trek of around 2,900 kilometers.
Pygmy Hippopotamus
Dwarf solitary forest hippo of the Upper Guinean swamps, with pink blood-sweat sunscreen.
Red Imported Fire Ant
An ant a few millimetres long that links up with its nestmates into a raft that can float for days.
Red Kangaroo
Australia's biggest marsupial, hopping at 64 km/h on powerful hind legs, balanced by a tail it can also rest on.
Red Lionfish
Swims at half its prey's speed and still wins six lab chases in ten.
Red-Bellied Piranha
Razor-sharp interlocking teeth, a red belly, and a school that doubles as cover from predators.