Arid
Thriving in dry scrublands and rain shadows, extracting metabolic moisture from succulent roots and seeds.
Armadillo Girdled Lizard
Heavily armored Karoo lizard that bites its own tail and curls into a spiky ball when threatened.
Black-Footed Cat
One of the world's smallest cats, with a hunting success rate of around 60 percent and an appetite for a fifth of its own body weight a day.
Boomslang
Giant round eyes, a 180-degree gape, and venom that turns the blood against itself.
Cockatiel
A small crested parrot from Australia's open country that can sing a human melody in near-perfect sync.
Egyptian Giant Solpugid
A camel spider, which is not a spider at all, with jaws that chop its prey to pulp.
Gerenuk
A bipedal antelope of Africa's dry thornbush that rears onto its hind legs to reach leaves other antelope can't, and does not drink standing water, relying instead on the succulent plants it eats.
Greater Jerboa
The desert rodent that flees predators in leaps measured at up to 3 meters long, on hind legs about four times the length of its front ones.
Sociable Weaver
The Kalahari architect that builds one shared straw mega-nest big enough for hundreds of birds, with some still standing more than a century later.
Spotted Hyena
Bone-crushing jaws, matriarchal clan rule, and a whoop that carries for miles.
Springbok
A gazelle-like antelope that bounces on stiff legs and flares a hidden crest of white hair.
Striped Hyena
A raised mane that makes it look nearly twice its size, jaws built to crush bone, and a scavenger's range from northern Africa to India.
Thorny Devil
Capillary skin channels that pull water from a puddle to its mouth, a spiny false head decoy, and big spines with no bone inside them.