Social Animals

Loxodonta africana

The African elephant is the largest living land animal, roaming savannas, forests, and semi-arid regions across sub-Saharan Africa in tightly-bonded matriarchal herds. This entry refers specifically to the African bush elephant, the larger of two African species recognized by the IUCN since 2021 — the other, the African forest elephant, is smaller, has straighter tusks, and lives in the dense rainforests of Central and West Africa. Elephant populations were decimated by ivory poaching through the 20th century, and though international trade bans and anti-poaching efforts have slowed the decline in many regions, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict continue to threaten the species today.

Euphausia superba

Antarctic krill is a small, shrimp-like crustacean that forms the foundation of the entire Antarctic food web, supporting whales, seals, penguins, and countless fish species. Despite its tiny individual size, its total biomass is estimated to be one of the largest of any animal species on Earth, gathering in massive swarms that can stretch for kilometers and be seen from space.

Cacajao calvus

The bald uakari is a small Amazonian monkey best known for its strikingly bare, bright red face, found in seasonally-flooded forests along the Amazon and its tributaries.

Tursiops truncatus

The bottlenose dolphin is one of the most widely-recognized and intelligent marine mammals, found in temperate and tropical oceans worldwide.

Pygoscelis antarcticus

The chinstrap penguin is named for the narrow black band running under its chin, giving it the appearance of wearing a tiny helmet strap. Among the most numerous penguin species in the world, it breeds in enormous colonies across the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding sub-Antarctic islands.

Aptenodytes forsteri

The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguin species, uniquely breeding through the brutal Antarctic winter on sea ice far from open water.

Canis lupus

The gray wolf is the largest wild member of the dog family, once ranging across nearly the entire Northern Hemisphere and living in tightly-coordinated family packs.

Phoenicopterus roseus

The greater flamingo is the largest and most widespread flamingo species, found wading in large flocks through shallow saline lakes and lagoons.

Apis mellifera

The honeybee is a highly social insect essential to global agriculture, pollinating a huge share of the crops humans depend on while producing honey and wax.

Dacelo novaeguineae

The laughing kookaburra is the largest member of the kingfisher family, famous for a call that sounds remarkably like raucous human laughter, often used to establish territory at dawn and dusk. Native to eastern Australia, it's one of the country's most recognizable and culturally iconic birds.

Panthera leo

The lion is one of the world's most recognizable big cats, known as the 'king of the jungle' despite living mainly on open savanna, and is the only cat species that lives in large social groups called prides.

Suricata suricatta

The meerkat is a small, highly social mongoose relative native to the deserts and grasslands of southern Africa, famous for standing upright on its hind legs to scan the horizon for predators. Living in tightly bonded family groups called mobs, meerkats rely on constant cooperation and vigilance to survive in an environment full of danger from the air and ground alike.

Gorilla beringei beringei

The mountain gorilla is a critically-studied great ape subspecies living in the misty forested slopes of the Virunga Mountains and Bwindi in central Africa, and one of conservation's most notable recovery stories.

Equus quagga

The plains zebra is the most common and widespread zebra species, roaming the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa in large, ever-shifting herds.

Setonix brachyurus

The quokka is a small macropod, part of the same broad family as kangaroos and wallabies, found in a few fragmented pockets on mainland southwest Australia and, in far greater numbers, on a handful of predator-free islands off Western Australia. It is widely nicknamed 'the world's happiest animal' online for a permanent smile-like expression created by the shape of its mouth, which has made it a popular subject for tourist selfies on Rottnest Island, its best-known stronghold. Despite that island abundance, quokkas are classified as Vulnerable overall, since introduced predators like foxes and cats have devastated the harder-to-protect mainland population over the past century.

Pygocentrus nattereri

The red-bellied piranha is one of the most notorious freshwater fish in the world, native to rivers and floodplains across the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America. Despite its fearsome reputation, it is primarily a scavenger and opportunistic feeder, and unprovoked attacks on humans are extremely rare.

Odobenus rosmarus

The walrus is a massive Arctic marine mammal easily identified by its long ivory tusks, thick blubber layer, and distinctive whiskered snout.

Pristella maxillaris

The X-ray tetra is a small freshwater fish native to slow-moving rivers and streams in South America, named for its almost completely transparent body that reveals its skeleton and internal organs. Its see-through appearance has made it one of the most recognizable and popular small fish in the freshwater aquarium hobby worldwide.

Xerus inauris

The Cape ground squirrel, or xerus, is a burrowing rodent of southern Africa's arid plains, easily recognized by holding its bushy tail overhead like a built-in parasol.

Marmota flaviventris

The yellow-bellied marmot is a large ground squirrel found in the mountains of western North America, spending nearly eight months of the year in deep hibernation.

Thunnus albacares

The yellowfin tuna is a large, fast-swimming fish found in tropical and subtropical waters across the world's oceans, prized both as one of the ocean's most powerful predators and as one of the most commercially important fish species for human consumption. Its name comes from the bright yellow coloring of its dorsal and anal fins, which become especially long and dramatic in mature adults.

Danio rerio

The zebra danio is a small freshwater fish native to streams and rice paddies across South Asia, named for the five uniform, horizontal blue stripes running along its silvery body. Beyond its popularity as an aquarium fish, it has become one of the most important model organisms in modern biological and medical research.