<p>Biological creatures offer inspiration for the invention of highly efficient energy-absorbing structures needed for aerospace, transportation, defense, and structural engineering applications. The bio-inspired design may have a complex configuration, including porous structure, reticulated shell structure, hierarchically patterned structures and so on. This type of typical structure could not be accurately built using traditional manufacturing technologies. With the advancement of Additive manufacturing (AM) any typical configuration can be fabricated with uttermost perfection.</p><p>In this article, various biological creatures mimicked to develop bio-inspired structures for energy absorption applications are reviewed. The different AM technologies and their optimum process parameters for preparing bio-inspired designs are discussed.&#xa0;It also explains how to employ additive manufacturing to fabricate the energy absorbing structures inspired by a honeycomb, pomelo peel, nacre, sponge, animal bone, beetle's wing, Norway spruce stem, biological macromolecules, pigeon’s feather, tortoiseshell, bamboo, and mantis shrimp. The software used for designing and analyzing the structures is mentioned, and the novelty of the design followed in the fabrication of bio-inspired structures is addressed. Furthermore, the different types of tests, equipment, testing parameters, factors affecting the performance of energy absorption behavior, and the failure modes are also explained. Finally, contemporary issues and research perspectives for additively manufactured bio-inspired structures for energy absorption applications are presented.</p>