The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus Panthera. It is among the most recognizable and popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. It featured prominently in the ancient mythology and folklore of...
The Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. It is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The Blue whale was once abundant in nearly all the Earth's oceans until the end of the 19th century. It was hunted...
The Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is a felid native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. The Snow leopard is adapted to living in a cold, mountainous environment and is capable of killing most animals in its range.
The Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. They are the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea...
The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a leopard subspecies native to Russia and China. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is considered one of the rarest cats on Earth.
The Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is a critically endangered antelope that during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe. During the Pleistocene, they also occurred in Beringian North America and the British Isles. It is extirpated...
The Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of cetacean on Earth after the Blue whale. American naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews called the fin whale "the greyhound...
The Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the Blue whale and the Fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas and prefers deep offshore waters. The whale's name comes from the Norwegian word...
The Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) is the world's third most endangered species of crane. Amongst cranes, its serrated bill makes it unique and enables it to easily feed on underground roots and slippery prey items. Among the cranes,...
The Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) is a small Old World vulture widely distributed from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to India. The contrasting underwing pattern and wedge-shaped tail make this bird distinctive in flight as it...
The European minks (Mustela lutreola) are small carnivores once widely distributed over almost the whole of the European continent and currently surviving in a few enclaves as fragmented populations. The huge change in its numbers and distribution...
The saker falcon (Falco cherrug ) is a large species of falcon. This species breeds from central Europe eastwards across the Palearctic to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the...
The Steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a large and impressive raptor. Its well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as the "booted eagles". The Steppe eagle is in many ways a peculiar species of eagle....
The North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica ) is a very large, thickset baleen whale species that is extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific population, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may have no...
The freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera ) is an endangered species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Margaritiferidae.Although the name "freshwater pearl mussel" is often used for this species, other...
The Caspian seal (Pusa caspica or Phoca caspica ) is one of the smallest members of the earless seal family and unique in that it is found exclusively in the brackish Caspian Sea. They are found not only along the shorelines, but also on the many...
The spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea ) is a small wader which breeds on the coasts of the Bering Sea and winters in Southeast Asia. This species is highly threatened, and it is said that since the 1970s the breeding population has decreased...
The Tarbagan marmot (Marmota sibirica ) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in China (Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang), northern and western Mongolia, and Russia (southwest Siberia, Tuva, Transbaikalia). In the Mongolian...
The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark. It is one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Typically, basking sharks reach 7.9 m (26...
The Russian desman (Desmana moschata ) (Russian: выхухоль vykhukhol' ) is a small semiaquatic mammal that inhabits the Volga, Don and Ural River basins in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It constructs burrows into the banks of ponds and slow-moving...
The West Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) is a mountain-dwelling goat-antelope native to the western half of the Caucasus Mountains range, in Georgia and European Russia. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the wild population is...
The white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala ) is a small diving duck some 45 cm (18 in) long. The male has a white head with black crown, a blue bill, and reddish-grey plumage. The female has a dark bill and rather duller colouring. Its breeding...
The beluga, also known as the beluga sturgeon or great sturgeon (Huso huso), is a species of anadromous fish in the sturgeon family (Acipenseridae) of order Acipenseriformes. It is found primarily in the Caspian and Black Sea basins, and formerly in...
Pallas's fish eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus ), also known as Pallas's sea eagle or band-tailed fish eagle, is a large, brownish sea eagle. It breeds in the east Palearctic in Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, China,...
The black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor ) is a species of wading bird in the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, found in eastern Asia. This species has the most restricted distribution of the six spoonbill species, and it is the only one...
The sociable lapwing or sociable plover (Vanellus gregarius ) is a critically endangered wader in the lapwing family of birds. The genus name is Medieval Latin for a lapwing and derives from vannus a winnowing fan. The specific gregarius is Latin...
The Oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana, Kounotori) is a large, white bird with black wing feathers in the stork family Ciconiidae.
Blakiston's fish owl (Bubo blakistoni) is the largest living species of owl. It belongs to a fish owl, a sub-group of eagle owls which specialize in hunting in riparian areas. This species is a part of the family known as typical owls (Strigidae)...
The slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris ) is a bird in the wader family Scolopacidae. Isotope analysis suggests the majority of the former population bred in the Kazakh Steppe despite a record from the Siberian swamps, and was migratory,...
The yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola ) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae that is found across the Boreal and East Palearctic. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific aureola is Latin...
The shortfin mako (; Māori: /ˈmaːko/; Isurus oxyrinchus), also known as the shortfin mako shark, blue pointer, or bonito shark, is a large mackerel shark. It is commonly referred to as the mako shark, as is the longfin mako shark (Isurus paucus)....
Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri ) is a diving duck found in eastern Asia. It breeds in southeast Russia and northeast China, migrating in winter to southern China, Vietnam, Japan, and India. The name commemorates the Estonian naturalist Karl Ernst von...
The Far Eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis ) is a large shorebird most similar in appearance to the long-billed curlew, but slightly larger. It is mostly brown in color, differentiated from other curlews by its plain, unpatterned brown...
The great knot (Calidris tenuirostris ) is a small wader. It is the largest of the calidrid species. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ...
The crested shelduck (Tadorna cristata ), or Korean crested shelduck, is a species of bird in the family Anatidae. It is critically endangered and may be extinct. The male crested shelduck has a greenish-black crown, breast, primaries, and tail,...
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a species of eel. They are critically endangered due to overfishing by fisheries on coasts for human consumption and parasites.
The scaly-sided merganser or Chinese merganser (Mergus squamatus ) is an endangered typical merganser (genus Mergus ). It lives in Manchuria and extreme Southeast Siberia, breeding in the north and wintering in the south.
Vipera kaznakovi is a species of venomous snake in the subfamily Viperinae of the family Viperidae. The species is endemic to Turkey, Georgia, and Russia. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Nordmann's greenshank (Tringa guttifer ) or the spotted greenshank, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders.
The kaluga (Huso dauricus), also known as the river beluga, is a large predatory sturgeon found in the Amur River basin. With a maximum size of at least 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) and 5.6 m (18.6 ft), the kaluga is one of the biggest of the sturgeon...
Unio crassus, the thick shelled river mussel, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.
Hoffmann's pika (Ochotona hoffmanni ) is a species of mammal in the pika family, Ochotonidae, that is endemic to Mongolia. It is currently listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
