Woodland
Adapted to temperate deciduous and mixed forests with seasonal temperature swings and changing leaf cover.
European Robin
Gardener's shadow, ferociously territorial songster, and the bird that became the Victorian icon of Christmas.
Fire Salamander
Black-and-yellow woodland amphibian whose glands behind the eyes secrete toxic alkaloids it can spray at attackers.
Fossa
Madagascar's largest carnivore, a cat-like relative of the mongoose that can climb down a tree headfirst.
Giraffe
Bulls can top eighteen feet, with a roughly twenty-five-pound heart built to fight gravity and an eighteen-inch tongue that dodges acacia thorns.
Gray Wolf
A keystone predator whose packs hunt down elk and moose, and whose howl can carry up to ten miles across Arctic tundra to pull the pack back together.
Great Horned Owl
Feathered horn tufts, tiger of the air, and nocturnal forest ambush conqueror.
Groundhog
The largest marmot in its range, a tunnelling rodent that sleeps through the winter and warns its neighbours with a shrill whistle.
Impala
An antelope whose leaps often carry it over bushes and even other impala, with scent glands under black hair on its hind feet.
Koala
A slow-motion marsupial that sleeps up to 22 hours a day and leans on gut bacteria to live on eucalyptus leaves most herbivores can't tolerate.
Laughing Kookaburra
World's largest kingfisher, the bush's dawn alarm clock, and a snake-smashing hunter.
Mandarin Duck
The tree-hole nesting duck whose drake grows an enlarged, brightly colored sail feather every breeding season.
North American Beaver
Self-sharpening orange teeth strengthened with iron, and an ecosystem engineer that dams streams into ponds.
Northern Cardinal
A red songbird that turns yellow food pigments into scarlet feathers.
Pine Marten
Cream-bibbed tree acrobat with ankles that rotate through 180 degrees for climbing up and down trees.
Red Deer
The UK's largest land mammal: a stag of up to 190 kg that regrows its antlers each year and roars through the autumn rut.
Red Fox
Fluffy white-tipped tail, a pounce that may be aimed using Earth's magnetic field, and an omnivore's habit of eating whatever is available.
Red Kite
A deeply forked tail it steers with, relatively weak talons that keep it mostly on carrion, and an astonishing comeback in the UK.
Red Squirrel
Double-jointed canopy acrobat that cracks a nut in seconds and buries seeds that may grow into trees.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
A metabolic dynamo that can beat its wings more than 50 times a second and cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single non-stop flight.
Satin Bowerbird
Stick-avenue builder, blue-object collector, and a courtship act of buzzes, rattles and mimicry.
Stag Beetle
Antler-like jaws for wrestling rivals, years spent as a larva tunnelling through rotting wood, and just a few weeks as an adult to find a mate.
Striped Skunk
The black-and-white warning sign that hisses, stamps and, if that fails, fires musk up to about twenty feet.
Sugar Glider
Patagium gliding membrane, glides that can reach about 150 feet between trees, and an appetite for eucalyptus sap and sweet nectar.
Superb Lyrebird
Ground-dwelling mimic whose courtship act includes a fake alarm-flock illusion convincing enough to fool real birds.