5-letter Animals that contain S

List of 5-letter Animals that contain S

1

Bison

Bison bison

A massive North American ungulate that once numbered 30-60 million on the Great Plains — nearly hunted to extinction by 1900, now recovered to roughly 500,000 across managed herds, ranches, and tribal lands.

2

Fossa

Cryptoprocta ferox

Madagascar's apex predator — a cat-like carnivore related to mongooses that can climb trees with equal agility going up or down, hunts lemurs by leaping through the forest canopy, and is the largest carnivore native to Madagascar; despite resembling a cat, it is more closely related to civets.

3

Horse

Equus ferus caballus

A large hoofed mammal domesticated 5,500 years ago on the Eurasian steppe — central to human history as transport, agriculture, warfare, and sport, with hundreds of breeds adapted to specific tasks.

4

Moose

Alces alces

The largest living deer species — North American and Eurasian, browsing on aquatic plants and tree bark, capable of being unexpectedly aggressive and outweighing most cars they collide with.

5

Mouse

Mus musculus (house mouse)

One of the most successful mammals on Earth — house mice have followed humans worldwide, while wild mice species number in the dozens, serving as both pest, prey, and the most-used laboratory animal in modern biology.

6

Saiga

Saiga tatarica

A bizarre-looking antelope with an oversized, bulbous nose that filters dust and warms cold air on the Central Asian steppe; one of the most ancient living mammals, surviving alongside woolly mammoths, and now critically endangered after a catastrophic 2015 die-off killed 200,000 animals in three weeks.

7

Shark

Selachimorpha (subclass — over 500 species)

An ancient cartilaginous fish that has roamed the oceans for over 400 million years — predating dinosaurs by hundreds of millions of years — with over 500 living species ranging from the 18 cm dwarf lanternshark to the 18 m whale shark.

8

Sheep

Ovis aries

A small ruminant raised for wool, meat, milk, and leather — among the earliest domesticated animals, with over a billion sheep alive worldwide today.

9

Skunk

Mephitis mephitis (striped skunk)

A black-and-white mammal famous for its sulfurous defensive spray — capable of accurate spraying up to 3 meters, with a smell so persistent it can linger for days even after washing.

10

Sloth

Bradypus variegatus (brown-throated sloth)

A slow-moving, tree-hanging mammal native to Central and South American rainforests, so sluggish that algae grows on its fur — providing camouflage and a small ecosystem.

11

Snake

Serpentes (suborder)

A legless reptile of nearly every habitat on Earth — over 3,800 species ranging from the 10 cm thread snake to the 6 m anaconda, with sophisticated venom systems and an extraordinary ability to swallow prey larger than their heads.

12

Stoat

Mustela erminea

A small, fierce mustelid — an elongated, chestnut-brown predator with a cream underside and a black-tipped tail; stoats are specialist rabbit hunters, able to pursue prey much larger than themselves, and can send entire rabbit warrens into paralysed panic; in northern Britain and at altitude, they turn pure white (ermine) in winter, retaining only the black tail-tip.

13

Xerus

Xerus inauris (Cape ground squirrel)

An African ground squirrel of arid scrub and semi-deserts, with sandy or grayish fur, a long bushy tail, and a habit of using the tail as a parasol against the sun.