Mammalia › Primates › Hominidae
Bonobo
Males stand 119 cm
Bonobos are the only non-human animal seen engaging in tongue kissing.
Field Guide · Chapter 2 of 29
Primates and carnivores
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Mammalia › Primates › Hominidae
Western gorilla
Males up to 1.76 m
Only its eastern cousin is a bigger living primate.
Mammalia › Primates › Lemuridae
Ring-tailed lemur
About 2,000 wild
Females outrank males in every circumstance, feeding priority included.
Mammalia › Primates › Cercopithecidae
Mandrill
The largest monkey
Its face is red and blue, and few mammals are more colourful.
Mammalia › Primates › Cercopithecidae
Japanese macaque
Snow for months
No other non-human primate lives farther north than the Japanese macaque.
Mammalia › Primates › Cercopithecidae
Rhesus macaque
Lives up to 2,500 m
In 1948 a rhesus macaque became the first primate astronaut.
Mammalia › Primates › Cercopithecidae
Olive baboon
Some males: 50 kg
The most wide-ranging of all baboons, native to 25 countries across Africa.
Mammalia › Primates › Atelidae
Geoffroy's spider monkey
It can hang from a branch by its tail and often does so while it feeds.
Mammalia › Primates › Callitrichidae
Common marmoset
Body 12 to 15 cm
Only its big toes have flat nails, as in most primates.
Mammalia › Primates › Cercopithecidae
Proboscis monkey
One of Asia's biggest
It may be the most water-loving primate, and it can swim up to 20 metres underwater.
Mammalia › Primates › Daubentoniidae
Aye-aye
Largest night primate
It taps on trees, listens for hollows, and pulls grubs out with one thin finger.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Hyaenidae
Spotted hyena
Body up to 150 cm
The only placental mammal where females have a pseudo-penis and no external vaginal opening.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Canidae
African wild dog
Up to 66 km/h
At a kill, the young get to eat first.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Canidae
Coyote
Males 8 to 20 kg
Coyotes lack color vision, so they see the world in grays and faint blues.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Canidae
Dingo
Native to Australia
A 2017 review proposes the dingo is a type of domestic dog.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Canidae
Arctic fox
Up to 11 years
In winter its paws are sheathed in dense fur, unlike other canids.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Canidae
Fennec fox
Weighs 0.8 to 1.5 kg
Its ears are big enough to shed heat and to hear prey moving under the sand.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Herpestidae
Meerkat
19% die by violence
Almost a fifth of meerkats die by violence from their own kind, the highest share recorded among mammals.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Mustelidae
European badger
Up to 50 exits
One badger sett can have as many as fifty exits.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Mephitidae
Striped skunk
15 millilitres a gland
Its musk is a blend of sulfur compounds that are close cousins of alcohols.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Procyonidae
Common raccoon
Up to 26 kg
A raccoon can remember how to solve a task for at least three years.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Mustelidae
Stoat
Up to 116 g, male
After mating, a stoat embryo can lie dormant for nine to ten months before it implants.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Mustelidae
Wolverine
Up to 109 cm long
A wolverine has been recorded killing prey many times its own size, such as an adult deer.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Mustelidae
Eurasian otter
Up to 17 kg
Its bones are denser, which makes it float less well.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Ailuridae
Red panda
Weighs 3.2 to 15 kg
Despite the name, this animal is not close kin of the giant panda.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Ursidae
Sun bear
Smallest of all bears
It is the most tree-living of all bears.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Ursidae
American black bear
Males to 300 kg
North America's smallest bear, yet its large males outsize bears on other continents.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
Eurasian lynx
Males up to 130 cm
It has taken adult deer of 150 kg or more.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
Bobcat
Up to 125 cm long
On average the smallest of the four lynx species.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
Ocelot
65 to 97 cm long
Every ocelot has a coat pattern of its own, and people can use it to tell individuals apart.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
Caracal
Leaps over 3.0 m
A cat that can leap higher than 3.0 m and catch birds in midair.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
Serval
Longest legs for size
It can leap over 2 m into the air to land on prey with its forefeet.
Mammalia › Carnivora › Felidae
European wildcat
Body up to 65 cm
Scotland's Highlands may have held only around 400 of them in 2004.
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On this page
- Bonobo
- Western gorilla
- Ring-tailed lemur
- Mandrill
- Japanese macaque
- Rhesus macaque
- Olive baboon
- Geoffroy's spider monkey
- Common marmoset
- Proboscis monkey
- Aye-aye
- Spotted hyena
- African wild dog
- Coyote
- Dingo
- Arctic fox
- Fennec fox
- Meerkat
- European badger
- Striped skunk
- Common raccoon
- Stoat
- Wolverine
- Eurasian otter
- Red panda
- Sun bear
- American black bear
- Eurasian lynx
- Bobcat
- Ocelot
- Caracal
- Serval
- European wildcat
What is real here
Every photograph and every outline comes from a real, openly licensed image, credited at the bottom of its card. Only plain charts are drawn.
The words on these cards are written by AI from the sources named on each card. Software matched every number and claim to a sentence in those sources. Mistakes are still possible, so follow a card's links before relying on it.
Globe dots are real recorded sightings from GBIF. Where a card says native range only, they are clipped to that range. Otherwise they can include zoos, gardens and places the species was introduced.