# What is the best fisher in the animal kingdom?

> Judged on catching fish, not on looking good doing it. That distinction moves at least one famous name a long way down.

*By YPB Team · Published August 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-fisher-in-the-animal-kingdom*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Orca** — score 1000/1000
   Hunts in coordinated pods and teaches herring-herding techniques between generations.
2. **Osprey** — score 927/1000
   A fish specialist with reversible outer toes and a strike success rate above one in four.
3. **African Fish Eagle** — score 877/1000
   The voice of Africa's lakes, and a close relative of the bald eagle with the same habits.
4. **Fishing Cat** — score 800/1000
   A South Asian wild cat with partly webbed feet that dives after fish.
5. **Grizzly Bear** — score 600/1000
   Stands in a waterfall and takes salmon out of the air during the run.
6. **Sea Otter** — score 600/1000
   Carries a favourite rock in an armpit pouch to break open shellfish.
7. **Great Blue Heron** — score 600/1000
   Stands motionless for minutes, then spears with a strike faster than the eye follows.
8. **Common Bottlenose Dolphin** — score 466/1000
   Uses mud-ring feeding, beach-stranding and cooperation with human fishermen in Brazil.
9. **Common Kingfisher** — score 466/1000
   Dives from a perch and corrects for water refraction before it hits the surface.
10. **Great Cormorant** — score 466/1000
   Swims down after fish; trained cormorants have fished Japanese and Chinese rivers for centuries.
11. **Northern Gannet** — score 466/1000
   Folds its wings and enters the water at a hundred kilometres an hour.
12. **Bald Eagle** — score 300/1000
   Catches its own fish, and also waits for an osprey to catch one first.
13. **Brown Pelican** — score 300/1000
   The only pelican that plunge-dives, hitting the water from up to twenty metres.
14. **Archerfish** — score 300/1000
   Shoots a jet of water to knock insects off overhanging leaves, adjusting for refraction.
15. **Humpback Whale** — score 300/1000
   Blows a spiral of bubbles to trap a whole school, then swallows it in one lunge.

Tags: nature, animals, predators, fish