The ghost of the Himalayas.

Aptenodytes forsteri

Endures the coldest winter on earth to keep one egg warm.

Rangifer tarandus

The only deer where both sexes wear antlers like crowns.

Ovibos moschatus

A shaggy ice-age relic forming circles against wolves and wind.

Lepus arcticus

Bolts across the tundra at sixty kilometres an hour.

Lemmus lemmus

Tiny, ferocious, and prone to legendary population booms.

Cygnus columbianus

Crosses continents on whistling wings to nest at the top of the world.

Lagopus muta

Changes wardrobe three times a year to match the tundra.

Capra ibex

Climbs sheer dams as if gravity politely looked away.

Oreamnos americanus

A white blizzard that walks on impossible ledges.

Ovis canadensis

Rams collide head-on with the force of a small car.

Marmota marmota

Whistles a warning that echoes across the whole valley.

Vultur gryphus

A three-metre shadow gliding the spine of the Andes.

Ailuropoda melanoleuca

A bear that quit meat for bamboo and never looked back.

Ailurus fulgens

A fire-colored ghost in the misty bamboo canopy.

Bos grunniens

Lungs and lashes built for five thousand metres of thin sky.

Rupicapra rupicapra

Sprints up vertical scree like the slope is just a suggestion.

Vicugna vicugna

Wears the finest wool on earth four thousand metres up.

Balaenoptera musculus

The largest animal that has ever lived on this planet.

Megaptera novaeangliae

Sings whole symphonies that travel across entire oceans.

Orcinus orca

The ocean's apex predator hunts in matriarchal pods.

Physeter macrocephalus

Dives two kilometres into the dark to wrestle giant squid.

Carcharodon carcharias

Three hundred serrated teeth and a sense of smell from miles away.

Rhincodon typus

The biggest fish in the sea eats only the smallest things.

Fratercula arctica

A painted clown of the sea that flies underwater.

Dermochelys coriacea

Crosses oceans on a single mission: a jellyfish dinner.

Thunnus thynnus

A warm-blooded torpedo that crosses oceans like rumour.

Enteroctopus dofleini

Nine brains, three hearts, blue blood, and a vanishing act.

Diomedea exulans

A three-and-a-half metre wingspan and oceans for a backyard.

Enhydra lutris

Floats on its back cracking shells with a favourite stone.

Amphiprion ocellaris

Lives untouched inside the stinging arms of an anemone.

Mobula birostris

Glides on seven metres of wing through warm blue water.

Phycodurus eques

Drifts through kelp disguised as a piece of weather.

Scaridae

Grinds coral into the white sand of every tropical beach.

Pterois volitans

Eighteen venomous spines fanned out like a stained-glass warning.

Eretmochelys imbricata

Sleeps wedged into reef crevices, dreams of sea sponges.

Tridacna gigas

Lives a century in one place, painting its own colours.

Camelus dromedarius

Drinks two hundred litres in three minutes and walks for weeks.

Camelus bactrianus

Two humps, four eyelids, and minus forty in its bones.

Felis margarita

Furry paws that leave no print on burning sand.

Dipodidae

A mouse on kangaroo legs, hopping the dunes by moonlight.

Heloderma suspectum

One of two venomous lizards alive, beaded like a saddle.

Geococcyx californianus

Outruns rattlesnakes at thirty kilometres an hour, no problem.

Addax nasomaculatus

An antelope of the Sahara, drinking only from morning dew.

Moloch horridus

Drinks dew through its skin via tiny capillary grooves.

Suricata suricatta

Stands sentry on hind legs against the whole Kalahari sky.

Leiurus quinquestriatus

Glows under ultraviolet light, kills with a single strike.

Panthera onca

Bites through caiman skulls and swims like it owns the river.

Panthera tigris tigris

A striped ghost moving silently through the mangrove dawn.

Pongo pygmaeus

Builds a new nest in the canopy every single night.

Gorilla gorilla

The gentlest giant of the forest, four hundred pounds of vegetable.

Pan troglodytes

Makes tools, war, and politics — our nearest living cousin.

Lemur catta

Sunbathes in lotus pose and rules a strictly female court.

Ara macao

A flying rainbow with a beak that cracks Brazil nuts.

Ramphastos toco

Carries a giant beak that doubles as its air conditioner.

Phyllobates terribilis

Smaller than a fingertip, carries enough poison to kill ten men.

Eunectes murinus

The heaviest snake on earth, ambushing from black water.

Okapia johnstoni

Half zebra, half giraffe, all secret of the Congo.

Tapirus terrestris

A prehistoric snorkel-nosed gardener seeding the rainforest floor.

Harpia harpyja

Plucks monkeys from the canopy with talons the size of grizzly claws.

Atta laevigata

Marches green parades to underground fungus farms older than agriculture.

Panthera leo

The only cat that hunts as a family, in roaring golden teams.

Acinonyx jubatus

Zero to a hundred kilometres an hour in three seconds.

Panthera pardus pardus

Hauls kills twice its weight up into the boughs of a tree.

Loxodonta africana

Mourns its dead and remembers every watering hole for a lifetime.

Giraffa

Walks the savanna at five and a half metres tall.

Equus quagga

Every stripe pattern is unique as a fingerprint.

Diceros bicornis

Charges first, eyesight second, and an armoured tank besides.

Crocuta crocuta

A matriarchal pack that laughs and crunches every bone.

Eudorcas thomsonii

Bounces stiff-legged to tell predators not to bother chasing.

Phacochoerus africanus

Runs backwards into burrows so its tusks face the enemy.

Lycaon pictus

Paints the bush in patched coats, hunts with an eighty percent kill rate.

Struthio camelus

The biggest bird alive cannot fly but can outrun a horse.

Falco peregrinus

The fastest animal on earth, falling at three hundred kilometres an hour.

Aquila chrysaetos

Hunts wolves and deer with a two-metre wingspan.

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Plucks salmon from the river with three-metre wings outstretched.

Gymnogyps californianus

Brought back from twenty-two birds to soar Californian canyons again.

Apus apus

Eats, sleeps, and mates on the wing for ten months straight.

Mellisuga helenae

The smallest bird on earth, weighing less than a coin.

Sterna paradisaea

Flies pole to pole every year — the longest migration on earth.

Danaus plexippus

Crosses a continent on stained-glass wings, then dies in Mexico.

Crocodylus porosus

The largest living reptile, an apex predator from the dinosaur age.

Hippopotamus amphibius

Sweats pink sunscreen and kills more humans than lions.

Lontra canadensis

Treats every river bank as a private waterslide.

Phoenicopterus ruber

Eats pink shrimp and turns into the colour of sunset.

Ardea herodias

Stands utterly still until the river forgets it is there.

Castor canadensis

Engineers entire wetlands one dam at a time.

Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris

The largest rodent alive, friend to every animal it meets.

Ambystoma mexicanum

Stays a smiling baby forever and regrows whatever it loses.