It is said that many martial arts were inspired by the animal kingdom. Here are some animals that are very good grapplers in their own right and have inspired Jiu-Jitsu.

5. Alligator/Crocodile 

Alligators are good grapplers. They often grab onto their prey before taking it down to the bottom of a body of water and spinning it, hence the “gator roll”. They are ambush hunters and often competing in the open weight division, attacking much bigger preys.

Stengths: Powerful, specialized in a few moves (Gator roll, snatching limbs, and shooting for an explosive takedown)

Weaknesses: Bad cardio, predictable, not well rounded as hunts exclusively in the water, doesn’t defend back mount well (watch Jaguar vs Alligator video), not very intelligent.

4. Gibbon

The gibbon is extremely agile. He mostly a guard player who likes to work spider, butterfly guards. He has a mean arm drag too.

Strengths: Agility, speed, cardio, technique, timing

Weaknesses: Not very strong, mostly a guard player.

3. Anaconda

Anaconda have to maneuver to kill and they use the body triangle. The famous anaconda choke is inspired by the snake. They have a deadly choke and constrict their preys.

Strengths: Despite their enormous size, Green Anacondas are sleek and stealthy in water—this trait, coupled with their glistening skin, makes them very charismatic. Their jaws are attached by stretchy ligaments that enable these fierce creatures to swallow animals even wider than themselves. After such a large meal, they can go weeks or months without food.

Weaknesses: Green Anacondas are very cumbersome on land.

2. Jaguar

The jaguar can take out virtually any terrestrial or riparian vertebrate found in Central or South America, with a preference for large prey.

The jaguar is a stalk-and-ambush rather than a chase predator. The cat will walk slowly down forest paths, listening for and stalking prey before rushing or ambushing. The jaguar attacks from cover and usually from a target’s blind spot with a quick pounce; the species’ ambushing abilities are considered nearly peerless in the animal kingdom by both indigenous people and field researchers, and are probably a product of its role as an apex predator in several different environments. The ambush may include leaping into water after prey, as a jaguar is quite capable of carrying a large kill while swimming.

Strengths: Incredible bite force and agility, explosive, patient, speed, very good at taking the back.

Weaknesses: Overpowered by sheer brute force and size.

1. Octopus

The octopus is the BJJ animal par excellence.  They are intelligent, are very tactical when attacking, have great memory and are very strong and flexible. Octopuses are the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates.

An octopus’s primary defense is to hide or to disguise itself through camouflage and mimicry. But by far the most striking characteristic of the octopus is the wide array of techniques it uses to avoid or thwart attackers…When discovered, an octopus will release a cloud of black ink to obscure its attacker’s view, giving it time to swim away. Fast swimmers, they can jet forward by expelling water through their mantles. And their soft bodies can squeeze into impossibly small cracks and crevices where predators can’t follow.

You can’t even tap them out or submit them!An octopus can lose an arm to escape a predator’s grasp and regrow it later with no permanent damage. They also have beaklike jaws that can deliver a nasty bite, and venomous saliva, used mainly for subduing prey.

Strengths: Very flexible, strong, intelligent, great memory, tactical, patient.

Weakness: Deadly in water, but useless outside. Has many predators that hunt them.