1. Coyote
   Aardwolf
2. Maned wolf
   Striped fox

Even though they look like large foxes, maned wolves are not in the same family. It's also not technically a wolf, either. Instead, it's the only member of its family that shares some characteristics with both species.

1. Honey badger
   Wolverine
2. Ermine
   Eurasian weasel

Honey badgers may sound sweet but in reality, they are anything but. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it's the most fearless animal on Earth and will even attack and fight off lions when forced into corners.

1. Mountain lion
   Bobcat
2. Puma
   Savannah cat

Bobcats range all across North America and feature prominently in Native American folklore. They get their name from their tails or, more specifically, their lack of a tail which is just a stub or "bobbed."

1. Polar bear
   Sunbear
2. Black bear
   Grizzly bear

Black bears are a relatively small species of bear, but they do have some impressive senses. A black bear's eyesight is more acute than a human's and their sense of smell is seven times greater than a dog's, meaning if you really want to hunt something you should use a bear.

1. Fishing cat
   Caracal
2. Geoffroy's cat
   Jungle cat

As the name suggests, a fishing cat is very much at home in and around water. In fact, the fishing cat is adept at swimming long distances and can even swim underwater.

1. Tiger shark
   Harbor porpoise
2. Orca
   Narwhal

Orcas are better known by their much more dramatic name, killer whales. Despite that aggressive name these animals, which are related to dolphins, are often very chill in the wild and only rarely cause harm to humans. In captivity, however, an orca can be very aggressive to human handlers and some have even killed.

1. Kodiak bear
   Spectacled bear
2. Panda bear
   Sloth bear

Sloth bears are some of the most vocal bears in the world. They can produce over 25 distinct sounds such as barks, woofs, yelps, roars, grunts, and screams. They're particularly vocal when mating.

1. Binturong
   Ocelot
2. Wolverine
   American badger

Binturongs are also known as bearcats and are particularly unusual beasts. Their most curious feature is that their scent glands produce a musk composed of a compound called 2-Acetyl-1-pyyroline that causes them to smell like popcorn or corn chips.

1. Sand cat
   Ocelot
2. Asian palm civet
   Dhole

Asian palm civets are not actually cats but they do resemble them. They supplement their diet which includes small mammals and insects with things like mangoes and coffee sometimes.

1. Timberwolf
   Red fox
2. Coyote
   Dingo

Dingoes can be found nearly everywhere in Australia, and though they look like dogs they don't always behave like domesticated dogs. For instance, though they are fully capable of barking, dingoes almost never do. In fact, only about 5% of all the vocalizations made by a dingo will be barks.

1. Golden civet
   Fossa
2. Bat-eared fox
   Fisher

Fossas are apex predators in Madagascar and most of their diet consists of lemurs. They also eat smaller mammals, birds and lizards as well to pad out their diets.

1. Bush dog
   African wild dog
2. Maned wolf
   Aardwolf

African wild dogs are bulky compared to most other dog-like animals and also have an unusual fur coat. Their fur is thick bristles with no undercoat and it thins out as the dogs age. Very old dogs will be almost completely hairless.

1. Grey wolf
   Spotted hyena
2. Coyote
   Swift fox

Spotted hyenas, also called laughing hyenas, live in large social groups. While pack behavior is common in animals in the dog family, spotted hyenas will take it to the next level by living in groups of up to 80 different members.

1. Raccoon dog
   Dugong
2. Bear cat
   Spotted hyena

Raccoon dogs aren't really raccoons or dogs. In fact, they're more closely related to foxes than either of the animals it's named for. Native to Eastern Asia they've also become an invasive species in Sweden thanks to people importing them as pets.

1. Nile monitor
   Komodo dragon
2. Green tegu
   Rock iguana

Komodo dragons are big, dangerous animals that are best avoided at all times. Their claws can tear through cages and their jaws are capable of inflicting deadly bites that will saturate wounds with bacteria and toxins.

1. Swift fox
   Plains fox
2. Red fox
   Arctic fox

Arctic foxes are well-adapted to life in the frigid north thanks to their incredibly insulating fur that protects them from the harsh temperatures of the Arctic. In fact, the Arctic fox is the only canid that even has fur on the pads of its feet.

1. Fennec fox
   Pampas fox
2. Grey fox
   Darwin's fox

Thanks to their adorable appearance, Fennec foxes have become rather popular as pets even though they're not actually domesticated and the best you can hope for is a tame one. It's legal to own as a pet in some places, but it's best to check with your local jurisdiction to be sure.

1. Caracal
   Fisher
2. Jaguarundi
   Bobcat

Jaguarundi are small, wild cats that tend to be rather solitary in the wild. They also produce a curious array of vocalizations that include normal cat-like meows, growls and purrs but also oddly bird-like sounds.

1. Golden jackal
   Arctic wolf
2. Dingo
   Wild dog

Golden jackals are very small, wolf-like canids. Every once in a while a jackal will grow a very small horn on its head that's usually concealed by its fur. People in Sri Lanka used to think they were magical.

1. Asian badger
   Black-footed ferret
2. Coatimundi
   Kinkajou

Kinkajous are native to Central and South America. Their diet is kind of bizarre since they're classified as carnivores but they're also big fruit eaters and tend to consume a lot of figs. On the carnivore side of things, they eat ants and other insects.

1. Mountain lion
   Cheetah
2. Clouded leopard
   Sand cat

Clouded leopards range all across Asia, particularly throughout the Himalayan mountains and China. They're such good climbers that they've actually been observed climbing down vertical surfaces headfirst.

1. Ocelot
   Canadian lynx
2. Jaguar
   Cougar

The Canadian lynx is very similar to the bobcat although it has much more distinct ear tufts. In some cases, snowshoe hares can make up nearly 100% of the cat's diet, though it can dip as low as about 30% depending on availability of the hares.

1. Snow leopard
   Cheetah
2. Tiger
   Lion

The lion is arguably the most recognizable animal in the entire world and has been for literally thousands of years. There are cave paintings in France dating from 17,000 years ago depicting these big cats.

1. Black mamba
   Boa constrictor
2. Burmese python
   Green anaconda

Green anacondas are one of the largest snakes on Earth. Not quite the longest but definitely the heaviest, these constrictors could devour a full-grown human if given the opportunity.

1. Meerkat
   Mole rat
2. Opossum
   Prairie dog

Meerkats live in desert climates in Africa and tend to live in giant groups. Some families are about 20 members strong while some larger groups can have as many as 50 members.

1. Sea otter
   Harp seal
2. Walrus
   Sea lion

Sea otters were once prized for their fur, and hunters took their population from hundreds of thousands down to perhaps only one or two thousand. Luckily, as a result of being protected, the species was able to bounce back somewhat but they are still considered endangered.

1. American weasel
   Ferret
2. Banded mongoose
   Beech marten

The banded mongoose can be found in central and eastern Africa. It is a carnivore but not a particularly fearsome hunter. As such, the majority of its diet is beetles and millipedes.

1. Fossa
   Fisher
2. Wolverine
   American badger

Wolverines have a reputation for being some of the most fearsome predators in North America. Their ferocity is the reason that Marvel comics named one of their most popular characters after them.

1. Ferret
   Marmoset
2. Long-tailed weasel
   Mink

Long-tailed weasels do live up to their name with a tail that tends to be more than half of their total body length. That said, they only get to be about 14 inches in length so "long" is very much a relative term here.

1. King vulture
   Bald eagle
2. Andean condor
   Red-tailed hawk

Andean condors, when you factor in both weight and wingspan, are the largest flying birds on the planet. Their wingspan reaches nearly 11 feet and is only surpassed by four other species, none of which match up in the weight department. So basically you don't want to mess with this bird.

1. Tyto owl
   Screech owl
2. Barn owl
   Great horned owl

Great horned owls can be found all over North America and are highly skilled hunters. They mostly focus on rabbits but will readily snatch up any small mammal and even some birds if they can get their talons into them.

1. Goblin shark
   Hammerhead shark
2. Thresher shark
   Tiger shark

Goblin sharks are deep-sea sharks and as such as rarely ever seen by humans. They'd likely be an unremarkable species if not for their massive snout and the fact they have protrusible jaws which means their jaws extend out of their mouth when they bite.

1. Piranha
   Tigerfish
2. Moray eel
   Barracuda

Moray eels are accomplished predators thanks to their highly unusual jaws. The eels actually have two jaws that work a bit like the alien's ones from the movie "Alien." The jaw you can see will clamp down on prey while a smaller jaw in the mouth lunges forward and will kill whatever it has caught and pull it into the eel's mouth.

1. Leopard
   Cheetah
2. Tiger
   Jaguar

Some species of tigers can grow to a massive size weighing as much as 650 lbs or more. They are the largest cats in the world and some of the largest cats that have ever lived. The heaviest tiger ever in captivity actually weighed over 1,000 lbs.

1. Badger
   Serval
2. Raccoon
   Skunk

Skunks are one of the few animals that adapt well to having its habitat overtaken by human cities. Many homeowners know all too well that a skunk is quite happy raiding human garbage cans in the middle of the night.

1. Poison dart frog
   American bullfrog
2. Tree frog
   Suriname toad

American bullfrogs may not look entirely intimidating, but they're very aggressive hunters. Bullfrogs have been known to eat other frogs, fish, snakes, rodents, birds and even bats. If a bullfrog can fit something in its mouth, it'll probably eat it.

1. Ocelot
   Jackal
2. Mongoose
   Serval

Mongooses are one of only a handful of species that are genetically protected from snake venom. Snake neurotoxin cannot chemically bond when they bite mongooses so the only ill effect a mongoose will suffer is from the bite itself. As such, mongooses have become rather effective hunters of cobras in some parts of the world.

1. Bald eagle
   Peregrine falcon
2. Northern goshawk
   Kestrel

For a time, bald eagles were on the brink of extinction. Luckily, efforts to save the species proved fruitful and in 1995 the eagles were actually removed from the endangered species list. They're still considered a threatened species but they are doing much better.

1. Australian sundew
   Cobra lily
2. Pitcher plant
   Venus flytrap

The Australian sundew plant's clever method of trapping insects for digestion is also very simple. It looks like any other plant glistening with morning dew that will attract insects to drink the water. But that dew is not water. Instead, it's a sticky substance produced by the plant itself from which insects can't escape. Once caught, digestive enzymes break down the bug.

1. Barracuda
   Piranha
2. Alligator gar
   Devil ray

The alligator gar is an extremely intimidating fish that has a dual row of very sharp teeth on its upper jaw and scales that are less like a normal fish and more like armor. The scales are actually a lot like bone and are covered in a hard enamel, making them very hard to penetrate.