Alligator Snapping Turtle
The alligator snapping turtle lies motionless on the riverbed with its mouth open, wiggling a pink, worm-like lure on its tongue to attract fish.
North America
American Alligator
Alligators dig ‘gator holes’ that hold water through droughts, creating refuges for fish, turtles and birds, which makes them ecosystem engineers.
American Bison
Around 30 to 60 million bison once roamed North America; by 1889 fewer than 1,000 were left.
American Black Bear
Not all black bears are black: they can be brown, cinnamon, blond, blue-grey or even white, like the rare ‘spirit bears’ of British Columbia.
American Bullfrog
The American bullfrog will eat almost anything it can fit in its mouth, including snakes, birds, bats and other frogs.
American Lobster
The American lobster is the heaviest crustacean in the world; the record lobster, caught in Nova Scotia, weighed about 20 kg.
American Robin
American robins find earthworms by sight, tilting their heads to spot tiny movements in the soil.
Arctic Fox
A young female Arctic fox walked 3,506 km across sea ice from Svalbard to Greenland in just 76 days, one of the longest journeys ever recorded for the species.
Arctic Hare
Arctic hares can hop on their hind legs like kangaroos, and in the far north they sometimes gather in groups of hundreds.
Army Ant
Army ants have no permanent nest: they link their bodies together to build a living nest, called a bivouac, that can hold hundreds of thousands of ants.
Atlantic Cod
The collapse of the cod stocks off Newfoundland in 1992 put about 40,000 people out of work and became a global warning about overfishing.
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crab blood is blue, and an extract from it is used to test vaccines, injectable drugs and medical implants for dangerous bacterial contamination.
Atlantic Puffin
A puffin can carry a dozen or more small fish crosswise in its bill at once, holding them in place with a spiny tongue.
Atlantic Salmon
Atlantic salmon find their way back to the exact river where they hatched, years later, largely by recognising its smell.
Axolotl
Axolotls can regrow lost limbs, parts of their spinal cord, heart and even parts of their brain without scarring.
Bald Eagle
Bald eagles build the largest nests of any North American bird; one famous nest in Florida was about 6 m deep and weighed around 2 tonnes.
Bee Hummingbird
The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world, weighing less than a small coin.
Beluga Whale
Belugas are nicknamed ‘canaries of the sea’ because they produce a huge variety of whistles, chirps, clicks and squeals.
Bighorn Sheep
A bighorn ram’s curled horns can weigh up to about 14 kg, and rams clash heads so hard that the crack can be heard over a kilometre away.
Black Widow Spider
A black widow’s venom is far more potent than a rattlesnake’s, drop for drop, but it injects so little that deaths are extremely rare.
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Prairie dog alarm calls are so detailed that they appear to describe a predator’s type, size and even colour.
Blue Jay
By burying thousands of acorns and forgetting some, blue jays may have helped oak forests spread north after the last Ice Age.
Blue-footed Booby
The bright blue of a booby’s feet comes from pigments in fresh fish, so brighter feet signal a healthier, better-fed partner.
Boa Constrictor
A boa constrictor kills its prey by stopping its blood flow as it squeezes, not by suffocation as people long believed.