Dire Animal

"Their like wolves but their dire" - South Park , Stick of Truth.

Dire animals are normal animals on steroids. They're vaguely based off of animals from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs.

They were introduced in 3.5, presumably as a way to add some higher level animals to help make the abilities of druids and rangers matter.

The following were introduced in the first Monster Manual, but there was a shitton of them added on in virtually ever book.

Dire Ape

Dire Badger

Dire Bat

Dire Bear - Dire bears are savage hunters that can eat humanoids as readily as game animals.

Dire Boar

Dire Lion

Dire Rat

Dire Shark

Dire Tiger

Dire Weasel

Dire Wolf

Dire Wolverine