We love animals, if you can't tell. All of 'em. Cats, dogs, rabbits. Our sister site Gothamist started it all with their unabashed love of giant pandas. But we're no wusses. Our tastes in animals generally run towards the freakishly huge, voracious killing machine end of the spectrum.

The only wildlife that threatens Gothamist is Lizzie Grubman behind the wheel of a Mercedes. Here in the Bay Area dangerous Black bears, mountain lions and coyotes are all closer than you think. We've run into some nasty raccoons in Oakland. And that's in our native environment. Take a step into the water and you no longer have home-field advantage.

We've been lucky enough to see the famous Russian River sea monster, a mature elephant seal, viciously murder a harbor seal pup while kayaking the mouth of the river. We've seen our favorite, Orcas, in the wild - but not like this group of whale watchers who witnessed a pod of Orcas trying to kill a baby grey whale in Monterey Bay. But now we're really excited because we can go see the deadliest beast of them all without getting wet or nauseous. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, recently rated the number one family attraction (PDF link) in the country by Zagat, is now home to the only Great White Shark in captivity, a four and a half foot adolescent female. The longest any Great White has remained alive in captivity is a scant sixteen days, but we hope the geniuses in Monterey will be able to work their magic with this one (and assume they will free it if any problems are encountered). Still, if you want to marvel at the most efficiently lethal animal on the planet from the safety of dry land, you'd better hurry.