Mammals

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• Watch Animal North Atlantic right whale The North Atlantic right whale is a large black baleen whale that lives along the east coast of North America. It filters tiny animals called copepods from the water and has rough white patches on its head that are different on every whale. It is one of the most endangered large whales, with about 384 left (2024), and many people are working to protect it.
• Watch Animal Ocelot The ocelot is a medium-sized wild cat of the Americas, from southern Texas to northern Argentina. Its golden coat has chains of dark-edged spots, and no two ocelots look alike. It hunts mostly at night, catching mice, rats, lizards and birds, and it needs thick plants to hide in.
• Watch Animal Okapi The okapi has a velvety reddish-brown coat and zebra-like stripes on its legs, but its closest living relative is the giraffe. It lives only in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it browses leaves with a long, dark tongue. It is endangered.
• Watch 3D Animal Orca The orca, also called the killer whale, is the largest member of the dolphin family and the ocean's top predator. Orcas live in every ocean, in close family groups called pods, made up of orcas related through their mothers. Each group has its own favorite foods, hunting tricks and even its own calls, which young orcas learn from their families.
• Watch Animal Pallas's cat Pallas's cat, or the manul, is a small wild cat of the cold, dry grasslands and mountains of Central Asia. Its long, thick fur makes it look bigger than it really is, and its flat face and low, round ears help it peek over rocks without being seen. It hunts pikas and other small animals.
• Watch Animal Plains zebra Plains zebras are striped members of the horse family that graze on the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa. They live in close family groups, travel long distances to find fresh grass and water, and every zebra's stripes are different.
• Watch Animal Platypus The platypus is one of the strangest mammals on Earth. It has a soft bill, webbed feet and a flat tail, lives in the rivers and streams of eastern Australia, finds food underwater with its eyes shut, and is one of the only mammals that lays eggs.
• Watch Animal Polar bear The polar bear is a huge bear that lives on the frozen sea of the Arctic. Thick fur and a layer of fat keep it warm, its amazing nose finds seals under the snow, and it can swim for many hours. It needs sea ice to hunt, so a warming Arctic is a big problem for it.
• Watch Animal Proboscis monkey The proboscis monkey is named for the grown-up male's huge, drooping nose. It lives only on Borneo, in forests along rivers, swamps and coasts. It eats mostly leaves and fruit, sleeps by the river every night and is a strong swimmer.
• Watch 3D Animal Puma The puma, also called the cougar or mountain lion, is a big, slender cat with plain tan fur and a long tail. It lives in more of the Americas than any other wild cat, from Canada all the way to the southern tip of South America, in mountains, forests, deserts and swamps.
• Watch Animal Pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus is a small, shy relative of the common hippo. It lives alone in the swampy rainforests of West Africa, mostly in Liberia, rests in water by day and feeds on land at night. It is endangered, with fewer than 2,500 adults left.
• Watch Animal Quokka The quokka is one of the smallest wallabies, a cat-sized marsupial of south-western Australia. Most quokkas now live on two small islands, Rottnest and Bald Island, because foxes and land clearing made them rare on the mainland.
• Watch Animal Red deer The red deer is one of the largest deer in the world. It lives in forests, hills and moors across Europe and into western Asia and North Africa. Males, called stags, grow huge branching antlers every year and roar to win mates in autumn.
• Watch Animal Red fox The red fox is a small, clever member of the dog family with an orange coat, black legs and a bushy, white-tipped tail. It lives across North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa, more of the world than any other wild land carnivore, and has even moved into big cities.
• Watch Animal Red kangaroo The red kangaroo is the largest marsupial in the world, an animal whose babies grow up in a pouch. It lives on the dry plains of inland Australia, hops on powerful back legs that work like springs, and can get most of the water it needs from the plants it eats.
• Watch 3D Animal Red panda The red panda is a cat-sized tree climber with rusty-red fur and a bushy ringed tail. It lives in cool mountain forests of the Himalayas and southern China and eats mostly bamboo leaves. Despite its name, it is not a close relative of the giant panda. It is endangered.
• Watch Animal Red squirrel Red squirrels are small tree squirrels from the forests of Europe and northern Asia. Their fur can be ginger, brown or even black, and in winter they grow long ear tufts. In Britain they have become rare since people brought gray squirrels from North America.
• Watch 3D Animal Reindeer Reindeer, called caribou in North America, are deer of the Arctic tundra and northern forests. They are the only deer in which females grow antlers too. Some herds walk thousands of kilometers a year, and people in northern Europe and Asia have herded reindeer for a very long time.
• Watch 3D Animal Ring-tailed lemur The ring-tailed lemur is a primate that lives only on Madagascar, a big island off the coast of Africa. It has a striped tail with 13 black and white rings, sunbathes with its arms spread wide, and lives in groups where the females are in charge.
• Watch 3D Animal Saiga antelope The saiga antelope is a goat-sized antelope with an amazing floppy nose. Huge herds roam the dry steppes of Central Asia. Saigas were once nearly wiped out by hunting, but thanks to protection there are now more than a million.
• Watch Animal Sand cat The sand cat is a small wild cat of the deserts of North Africa, Arabia and Central Asia. Its sandy coat hides it on the dunes, its big ears hear prey moving under the sand, and thick fur on the soles of its feet protects it from scorching days and freezing nights.
• Watch Animal Sea otter The sea otter is a marine mammal of the North Pacific coast that spends almost its whole life in the water. It has the thickest fur of any animal, floats on its back to eat, and even uses rocks as tools. By eating sea urchins, sea otters help kelp forests stay healthy.
• Watch 3D Animal Serval The serval is a slender wild cat of African grasslands and wetlands. Its huge ears can hear mice moving in tall grass, and its long legs let it leap high into the air to pounce on them or snatch a bird.
• Watch 3D Animal Short-beaked common dolphin The short-beaked common dolphin is one of the most numerous dolphins in the world. It lives in warm and cool seas around the globe, travels in groups of hundreds or even thousands, and is famous for leaping and riding the waves in front of boats.
• Watch Animal Short-beaked echidna The short-beaked echidna is a spiny mammal that lays eggs. It lives all over Australia and in parts of New Guinea, digs into ant and termite nests with strong claws, and licks up the insects with a long, sticky tongue. It has no teeth at all.
• Watch Animal Sloth bear The sloth bear is a shaggy, black bear of the forests and grasslands of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It is a bear that specializes in eating termites and ants: it digs open their nests with long claws and sucks them up through a gap in its front teeth. Mother sloth bears carry their cubs on their backs.
• Watch Animal Snow leopard The snow leopard lives high in the mountains of Central Asia, where it is freezing cold and the ground is steep and rocky. Thick fur, huge furry paws and a tail almost as long as its body help it survive. It is so hard to spot that people call it the ghost cat of the mountains.
• Watch Animal Spectacled bear The spectacled bear, or Andean bear, is the only bear that lives in South America. It is named for the pale markings that ring the eyes of many bears, like a pair of glasses. It lives in the forests of the Andes Mountains, climbs trees, builds platforms in branches and eats mostly fruit and bromeliads.
• Watch Animal Sperm whale The sperm whale is the biggest whale with teeth. Its huge, boxy head is about a third of its body, it dives deep into the dark ocean to hunt squid, and it makes the loudest sounds of any animal.
• Watch 3D Animal Spotted hyena The spotted hyena is the largest of the hyenas and a skilled hunter of the African savanna. Many people think hyenas only eat leftovers, but in East and Southern Africa they catch most of their own food. They live in big clans led by females, and they whoop, groan and 'giggle' to talk.
• Watch 3D Animal Stoat The stoat is a small, slender hunter with a long body, short legs and a black-tipped tail. It lives across the northern parts of Europe, Asia and North America, and in snowy places some stoats turn white in winter.
• Watch Animal Striped skunk The striped skunk is a cat-sized mammal of North America with bold black and white fur. It comes out at night to hunt insects and other small foods, and it is famous for its warning dance and its strong-smelling spray, which it uses only when it feels threatened.
• Watch Animal Sumatran orangutan The Sumatran orangutan is a shaggy red great ape that lives almost all its life in the treetops of northern Sumatra, in Indonesia. Its hair is longer and lighter than its Bornean cousin's, and a mother has a baby only every eight or nine years.
• Watch Animal Sun bear The sun bear is the smallest of the world's eight kinds of bear, and it has the longest tongue. It lives in the forests of Southeast Asia, climbs trees with long curved claws, and rips open logs to find insects and honey. Every bear has its own chest patch, like a fingerprint.
• Watch Animal Tasmanian devil The Tasmanian devil is the world's largest surviving meat-eating marsupial. It lives only on the island of Tasmania, comes out at night, and has jaws strong enough to eat a whole meal, bones and all. Its loud screeches sound fierce, but many of its displays are bluff.
• Watch 3D Animal Tiger The tiger is a huge cat with orange fur and dark stripes that help it hide in tall grass and forest shadows. It lives alone, hunts deer and wild pigs, and loves to swim. Wild tigers live only in Asia, and they are endangered.
• Watch Animal Vaquita The vaquita is one of the smallest members of the whale, dolphin and porpoise family, and the most endangered marine mammal in the world. It lives only in the northern Gulf of California in Mexico. In 2025, survey teams saw between 7 and 10 different vaquitas and at least one new calf, and many people are working to keep them safe from fishing nets.
• Watch 3D Animal Walrus The walrus is a huge Arctic sea mammal with long ivory tusks and a thick mustache of whiskers. It feels for clams on the sea floor, sucks out the soft part, and rests in big, noisy groups on sea ice and beaches.
• Watch Animal West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee is a large, slow, plant-eating marine mammal nicknamed the sea cow. It lives in warm coasts, rivers and springs from Florida and the Caribbean to Brazil, grazing on seagrass and other water plants for up to 8 hours a day. It cannot stand cold water for long, and being hit by boats is one of the dangers it faces.
• Watch Animal Western gorilla The western gorilla is a great ape, one of our closest animal relatives. It lives in family groups led by a big silverback male, eats leaves and fruit in the rainforests of central Africa, and is quiet and peaceful unless it feels threatened.
• Watch Animal White rhinoceros The white rhinoceros is the largest rhino and one of the biggest animals on land. It is not really white: its name may come from its wide, square lips, perfect for mowing grass. Careful protection has brought it back from the edge.
• Watch Animal White-tailed deer White-tailed deer live in forests, fields and even towns from Canada down to South America. They are named for the white underside of the tail, which they hold up like a flag when they run. Males grow new antlers every year.
• Watch 3D Animal Wild boar Wild boars are bristly wild pigs that live in forests and fields across Europe, Asia and North Africa. They sniff out food with their powerful snouts, live in family groups called sounders, and are the wild ancestors of farm pigs.
• Watch Animal Wolverine The wolverine is a strong, stocky member of the weasel family that lives in the cold north of North America, Europe and Asia. It travels huge distances, eats almost anything it can find, and digs dens in deep snow for its babies. Its fierce reputation is often exaggerated: it avoids wolves and bears.