Whats your favourite animal that isn’t traditional kept as a pet? So you can’t choose a pug for instance but you could choose a coyote or another wild dog.
Mine is: 
The Scottish Wildcat aka Felis silvestris grampia aka the Highlands Tiger. Its one of the rarest cats on the planet with less than 100 of them left.
Giant Otters ever since this BBC documentary.
Red Pandas!
Damn, no fear. Remind me to never start a fight with a bevy of otters.
I am a fan of them too, really interesting a species becoming extinct through breeding with domestic animals.
Cool map of their sightings
Before this in the documentary they have to move their den away from Caiman. One of the male Otters carried two pups holding one in mouth and the other in his paws, rotating them as he swam so they could both breathe.
The Beaver.
This unassuming animal is motivational to me. Broadly speaking, if a beaver approached the other animals in the animal kingdom and said “I want to live on top of the water!” The other animals would laugh. But upon closer inspection, they are perfectly equipped to fulfill this task.
They are unassuming but amazing. I love them!
The pied wagtail is a delightful small, long-tailed and rather sprightly black and white bird. When not standing and frantically wagging its tail up and down it can be seen dashing about over lawns or car parks in search of food.
It frequently calls when in its undulating flight and often gathers at dusk to form large roosts in city centres.
Read more at https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/pied-wagtail#Dqwzbl5LvsKcVm47.99
They look like they’re always dancing, and are adorable when dashing along the ground.
I love corvids of all sorts, in particular magpies & crows. Love a big smart bird!
I for some reason have a big soft spot for common farm animals like cows, sheep etc. I guess they’re pet adjacent, but not commonly kept as actual pets so I’m counting it. Here’s some cute pics of a pair of local cows I took a little while back 
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If I HAVE to go with just one, I gotta go with the Orchid mantis. She’s a big weird lanky bug, which is relatable, but she also rocks high-femme fashion while being a terrifying predator with swords for arms, which is aspirational.
Corvids are cool.
We have loads of rooks around my village. I like watching them when they’re nesting.
I’ll add to the Corvid love. I really love Blue Jays. There is woods all around my house, and I love just watching all the birds fly around. They’re all so colorful, vivid, and sound beautiful this time of year.
There are so many others though that I really like. I’ll just list them instead of post a ton of pictures: Bull shark, Raccoon, Oppossum, and Pelican. All really cool in my book.
Alligators/Crocodiles. They’re the closest thing we have to real life xenomorph’s and I wuv them. They are cuties.
