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The Best TV Shows on Animal Planet

Every Animal Planet Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Explore our list of the top rated shows up to date from January 2025 that includes over 20 unique series. Icons of Animal Planet, The Crocodile Hunter and Croc Files made their debut in 1997 and 1999, setting industry standards. Showcasing over 20 shows from 1997 up until 2018, Animal Planet stands as a beacon of television excellence.

  • Croc Files
    Croc Files (1999)9.3

    Croc Files is a wildlife documentary television series focusing on crocodiles first aired on cable TV channel Animal Planet. It was created as a spin-off to the original Crocodile Hunter and The Crocodile Hunter Diaries series hosted by Australian naturalist Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin. In the UK it was aired on ITV. In Australia it was aired on Network Ten.

  • The Crocodile Hunter Diaries
    The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2002)9.0

    Discover Steve and Terri Irwin's life at the Australia Zoo and the incredible stories that unfold in front of the camera. From the birth of their daughter Bindi, to the amazing operations as they treat the wildest, most outrageous animals on the planet.

  • Insane Pools: Off the Deep End
    Insane Pools: Off the Deep End (2015)8.0

    Follow Award-winning pool designer Lucas Congdon and his crew as they tackle unprecedented designs, challenging clients, malfunctioning equipment, weather crises, unforgiving materials, and much more in their quest to build breathtaking natural wonders in every day backyards.

  • Monsters Inside Me
    Monsters Inside Me (2009)7.9

    Part horror movie, part medical detective story, find out what happens when people fall prey to an infection from a parasite, those nasty microscopic creatures found in water, soil and even in the air. Victims' stories are retold, including how doctors and scientists attempt to unravel each case before it's too late. Biologist Dan Riskin, assisted by doctors and experts who witnessed each case, leads the scientific discussion about each parasite.

  • Too Cute
    Too Cute (2011)7.9

    Witness the miracle of cute, from a kitten's first tentative steps, to a puppy's first call to the wild. The first few months of their lives are an adorable adventure. These furry friends are simply too loveable, too curious, too cute!

  • The Vet Life
    The Vet Life (2016)7.9

    Follow veterinarians Dr. Diarra Blue, Dr. Aubrey Ross and Dr. Michael Lavigne, who recently moved to Houston to open a full-service veterinarian hospital and animal shelter together. The series captures the doctors' lives as they juggle running a new business while managing their family life filled with spouses, parents, in-laws, children, pets and friends, as well as their intense moments saving the lives of animals at their clinic.

  • Crikey! It's the Irwins
    Crikey! It's the Irwins (2018)7.8

    Follow Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin as they run the extraordinary Australia Zoo in the bushlands of northern Australia. Caring for over 1,200 animals, overseeing a world-class wildlife hospital, and conducting high-octane global conservation expeditions, the Irwins’ lives are full of adventure, fueled by their love of animals and passion for protecting them.

  • Dogs 101
    Dogs 101 (2008)7.7

    Dogs 101 is a show that airs on the American cable TV channel Animal Planet. Dog trainers and breeding experts explored the advantages and disadvantages of various breeds of dogs.

  • The Crocodile Hunter
    The Crocodile Hunter (1997)7.6

    Australian host Steve Irwin and his wife Terri run a wildlife refuge. Their shared passion is educating the world about wildlife, including the much feared crocodile and numerous venomous snakes. Steve's specialty is the capture and relocation of crocodiles. No animal appears too threatening to Steve, his true respect for animals is the foundation for everything he does.

  • Meerkat Manor
    Meerkat Manor (2005)7.5

    Meerkat Manor is a British television programme produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International that premiered in September 2005 and ran for four series until its cancellation in August 2008. Blending more traditional animal documentary style footage with dramatic narration, the series told the story of the Whiskers, one of more than a dozen families of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert being studied as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long-term field study into the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of the cooperative nature of meerkats. The original programme was narrated by Bill Nighy, with the narration redubbed by Mike Goldman for the Australian airings and Sean Astin for the American broadcasts. The fourth series, subtitled The Next Generation, saw Stockard Channing replacing Astin as the narrator in the American dubbing. Meerkat Manor premiered in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2005, and the first 13-episode series concluded on 24 October 2005. With the success of the programme in the United Kingdom, Animal Planet started broadcasting it on its national channels in Australia, Canada, and the US. It has since been rebroadcast in more than 160 other countries. The fourth, and final, series aired initially in the United States from 6 June 2008 to 22 August 2008; it aired in the United Kingdom in April 2009. In August 2009, it was reported that the programme had been cancelled.

  • Pet Star
    Pet Star (2002)7.3

    Pet Star was a show on Animal Planet hosted by Mario Lopez. The show is a contest between owners and their trained pets who perform tricks. The tricks are graded by three celebrity judges on a scale of one to 10. In the end, the three pets with the highest score come out as finalists, and the audience votes on who is the episode's Pet Star. Then, at the end of the season, the winners compete to be the year's ULTIMATE PET STAR. The winner of a regular show gets $2,500, while the winner of the finals gets $25,000. There were many celebrity judges, including Gena Lee Nolin, Virginia Madsen, Will Estes, Lindsay Wagner, Matt Gallant, Mackenzie Phillips, Billy West, James Avery, George Wallace, Melissa Peterman, Christopher Rich, John O'Hurley, Vanessa Lengies, Dom Irrera, Carol Leifer, Andy Kindler, Melissa Rivers, Meshach Taylor, Kaley Cuoco, Rosa Blasi, Jeff Cesario, Karri Turner, Peter Scolari, Bruce Jenner, Fred Willard, Shari Belafonte, Josh Meyers, Lori Petty, Ben Stein, Richard Jeni, Ken Howard, Paul Gilmartin, Maria Menounos, Tempestt Bledsoe, David Brenner and Amy Davidson. Pet Star is based on the show Star Search. It is shown in the United Kingdom on Challenge.

  • Whale Wars
    Whale Wars (2008)7.3

    Whale Wars is a weekly American documentary-style reality television series that premiered on November 7, 2008 on the Animal Planet cable channel. The program follows Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, as he and the crew aboard their various vessels harass Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. On January 5, 2013, Animal Planet renewed the series for a sixth season.

  • My Cat from Hell
    My Cat from Hell (2011)7.3

    From cats that break up relationships to violent felines that put their owners in the hospital, cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy has seen it all. Follow Jackson as he brings his unique understanding of cats to desperate families on the verge of giving up on their furry companions.

  • River Monsters
    River Monsters (2009)7.2

    Extreme angler Jeremy Wade is on the hunt for fish with a taste for human flesh. This rip-roaring ride mixes action and adventure with mysteries, edge-of-the-seat chase and a battle of wills between man and nature.

  • Tanked
    Tanked (2011)7.2

    Following the antics of two brothers-in-law as they run the largest aquarium manufacturing company in the nation, Tanked dunks viewers into the high-decibel, family-owned business of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM). Led by business partners, best friends and constant rivals Wayde King and Brett Raymer, this 13,000 square foot facility, located in Las Vegas, produces some of the most outrageous, larger-than-life and one-of-a-kind tanks for some of the most striking fish and clients around.

  • Treehouse Masters
    Treehouse Masters (2013)6.7

    People who know and work with Pete Nelson describe him as a tree whisperer. For his part, Nelson lets the trees do the talking. He's a world-renowned treehouse designer and builder, and this series documents the work he and his team of craftsmen—including his son Charlie—do to create incredible homes and businesses in nature's canopy. Pete uses a combination of science and art to realize clients' sky-high aspirations of magnificent multi-bedroom treehouses with elaborate kitchens and bathrooms, or simpler, peaceful one-room escapes. Other backyard escapes featured in the series include a spa retreat, a brewery, and a honeymoon suite. "We awaken that inner child who dreams of living among the trees," Pete says.

  • The Last Alaskans
    The Last Alaskans (2015)6.6

    In 1980, the U.S. government banned new human occupation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a protected area, home to thousands of native animals and pristine terrain spanning roughly the size of South Carolina. Currently, only a handful of families spread across seven permitted cabins are allowed to remain in the refuge. Within less than 100 years, all remaining permits will reach expiration, and there will be no human presence left.

  • Animal Precinct
    Animal Precinct (2001)6.5

    Animal Precinct is an American documentary reality television series that originally aired from June 26, 2001, to February 4, 2008, on Animal Planet. Set in New York City, the series follows the animal cruelty agents of the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement Division as they work as advocates for the five million pets and other animals in New York City, sometimes removing them from dangerous situations and pursuing arrests of those who have been accused of being cruel to animals. The show was filmed locally by crews from Anglia Television, edited in the UK and shown on Discovery Channel networks worldwide.

  • Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet
    Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet (2015)6.3

    There's no such thing as "a regular day" at Denver's Planned Pethood Plus veterinary clinic. For 80,000-plus clients and their pets, the clinic and its maverick ER vet Dr. Jeff Young represent one last hope and possibly the difference between life and death.

  • Finding Bigfoot
    Finding Bigfoot (2011)5.5

    From small towns in the South to remote areas of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, four eccentric but passionate members of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO) embark on one single-minded mission - to find the elusive "creature" known as Bigfoot or the Sasquatch.