Predator
Active carnivorous hunter utilizing acute sensory tracking, stalking tactics, and lethal offensive weapons.
Great Barracuda
A long, tube-shaped hunter with two sets of razor-sharp teeth that chops big fish in half.
Great Torpedo Ray
170-to-220-volt shocks from a honeycomb of barely visible electric organs, and jaws that stretch to swallow surprisingly big fish.
Greater Roadrunner
Ground-running desert cuckoo that hits up to 20 miles per hour, smashes prey against rocks, and warms up by sunbathing the black skin on its back.
Harbor Seal
Whiskers that detect a swimming fish's wake, a heart rate that can drop to three or four beats a minute on a dive, and the widest range of any seal on Earth.
House Centipede
The night hunter on 15 pairs of legs, with back legs that on adult females are nearly twice as long as its body.
Hydra
A small freshwater polyp whose death rate in lab studies stayed flat as it got older.
Long-Bodied Cellar Spider
The ceiling spider that raids other spiders' webs and spins itself into a blur when threatened.
Mahi-Mahi
A gold-and-blue ocean sprinter that can pass 4 feet long in its first year.
Maned Wolf
Stilt-legged golden canid of the cerrado that sees over tall grass and marks its territory with urine that reminds many people of a skunk.
Pacific Giant Salamander
North America's largest terrestrial salamander, guarding Pacific Northwest streams with a startled bark, a noxious tail secretion, and gills it can keep for life.
Red Lionfish
Swims at half its prey's speed and still wins six lab chases in ten.
Serval
Savanna hunter with the longest legs and largest ears for its size of any cat, able to leap more than nine feet straight up to snatch a bird from the air.
Seven-Spot Ladybird
The red beetle that bleeds poison from its leg joints.
South American Bushmaster
The longest of all vipers, able to aim a strike in the dark by body heat alone, from the only pit vipers in the Americas that lay eggs.
Southern Black Widow
Shiny black spider whose venom floods the nerve-muscle junction with acetylcholine and noradrenaline.
Swordfish
A fish with a heater for its brain and a flattened bill it apparently uses to slash prey.
Tuatara
The sole survivor of an ancient reptile order: a nocturnal New Zealand islander with a light-sensitive third eye it does not see with, and a sliding jaw that makes a shearing bite.
Yellowfin Tuna
A warm-muscled torpedo that can swim across an entire ocean.