Let me be really clear about one thing. In the real world, from sharks to gorillas, spiders to rats, not one animal is actually a villain. Philosophers might debate it, scientists might still be researching it, but as far as we know, animals can’t and don’t distinguish between right and wrong. Instead, they have instincts: to eat, reproduce, nurture, defend and survive.

The only animal capable of being a villain – and quite often to other animals… well we all know who that is. (Yes, I’m looking at you, mankind.)

But in stories – all bets are off. In The Dark Wild, a group of animals have fled a virus started by human beings, and live in an underground lair, biding their time and plotting revenge against people. They are led but also exploited by a large white dog with metal teeth called Dagger. He is vicious to other animals and to humans, although perhaps not without reason, as the story reveals…

When I was writing Dagger, I spent a lot of time re-reading and thinking about other animal villains in stories, and there are too many great ones to fully list here. But from the most feared members of the natural kingdom, to magically enhanced beasts, to animals embodying the very worst of human nature – here are my top ten animal villains.

1. Captain Maugrim, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

The giant wolf chief of the White Witch’s secret police, is, like most secret police (but unlike most wolves) adept at creating trails of fear – none more chilling than the “terrible surprise” which Lucy finds on her second trip through the wardrobe: what Maugrim did to the friendly Mr Tumnus and his cave…

2. Mrs Coulter’s monkey from His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman

A monkey with long golden fur and “little black hands”, this nameless but viciously expressive creature represents the worst of his mistress’s personality – biting, hair pulling, thieving, bat torturing bully. In real life, golden tamarinds are born foragers and territorially aggressive – but also sadly endangered.

3. Samuel Whiskers from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers by Beatrix Potter

You might not expect to find a frightening villain in a Beatrix Potter tale, but this “enormous old” rat who kidnaps a young kitten, wrapping him in dough and butter to make a roly-poly pudding, gives me the creeps. And rats really do come in all shapes and sizes…

4. Tracker Jackers from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Who knows what the future holds for animals? Perhaps, as our understanding of genetics evolves, we might witness the creation of the Capitol’s mutated, oversized golden wasps and their terrifying hallucination causing stings “that raise a lump the size of a plum on contact.”

5. Napoleon from Animal Farm by George Orwell

Not technically a children’s book, as some thought at the time, but one I enjoyed as a child – although I feared the tyrannical pig Napoleon, “the rather fierce looking Berkshire boar, with a reputation for getting his own way” who promises equality for all beasts but ends up living like a human in the farmhouse, at their expense.

6. General Woundwort from Watership Down by Richard Adams

Don’t think rabbits are scary? Think again. Perhaps, in literary terms, a descendant of Napoleon, a large rabbit who “bares his long teeth like a rat’s fangs”. The real life territorial nature of rabbits is given serious bite through this ruthless character’s attempts to grab power, mad enough to nearly kill a cat and attack a dog…

7. Shere Khan from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Perhaps the one animal on the list most closely drawn from life, Shere Khan – unlike the Disney version – is “the Big One”, the lame but proud tiger who vows Mowgli will pay for his human intrusion into the jungle. Mowgli wins, and takes his skin. This is all too believable – Bengal tigers are an officially endangered species.

8. Nagini from Harry Potter by J K Rowling

Voldermort’s slithering, murderous snake is “at least twelve feet long”, with an “ugly triangular head”– but her real power lies inside, in the form of one last deadly secret for Harry to uncover. She is a classic fantasy creation that plays not only on our primal fear of snakes but their many mythical and supernatural associations.

9. The Terrible Dog Fish from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

From Jonah and the Whale to Moby Dick to Jaws, another deep rooted primal fear humans have is of monsters in the deep. In the classic Italian tale of the long-nosed wooden puppet, this gigantic dog-fish, with three rows of enormous teeth, “sucks in the poor puppet as he would a hen’s egg”, which might put you off swimming in the sea for a while…

10. Shelob from The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien

Perhaps the ultimate animal baddie – Tolkien brilliantly exploits our ancestors’ fear of poisonous spiders by creating a monstrously unforgettable one, the mother of all spiders: “an evil thing in spider form”, who lurks waiting for Sam and Frodo in the caves of Cirith Ungol, “bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness.” The hobbit heroes escape, wounding her in the process, but significantly – she is not actually killed…