1
Aardvark
Orycteropus afer
A secretive nocturnal African mammal with a pig-like snout and long sticky tongue — the only living species in its entire order, an evolutionary singleton that has changed little in tens of millions of years.
Looking for 8-letter animals? Here are 19 animals that fit — each linked to a full profile.
Letters are counted across the whole name with spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, and diacritics excluded. "Apple Pie" is 8 letters; "Boeuf Bourguignon" is 16.
List of 8-letter Animals
2
Anteater
Myrmecophaga tridactyla (giant); Vermilingua suborder
A long-snouted, toothless mammal with a sticky tongue that flicks 150 times per minute — eating exclusively ants and termites, with the giant anteater of South America consuming up to 35,000 insects daily.
3
Antelope
Antilopinae and Bovidae (subfamilies; not a single species)
A diverse group of fast, lightweight horned ungulates spanning over 90 species across Africa, Asia, and the Americas — many of the world's fastest land mammals.
4
Babirusa
Babyrousa babyrussa
The deer-pig of Sulawesi — one of the most anatomically bizarre pigs in the world, with upper canine tusks that grow upward through the skin of the snout and curve back toward the skull; males carry these extraordinary recurved tusks throughout life, and in older individuals the tusks can complete a full circle; a Vulnerable species of Indonesian rainforest.
5
Capuchin
Cebus capucinus
A highly intelligent New World monkey from Central and South America — famous for tool use, complex social behaviour, and being one of the most cognitively advanced non-ape primates.
6
Capybara
Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
The world's largest living rodent — a semi-aquatic South American herbivore the size of a large dog, famous for its docile temperament and remarkable tendency to be adopted as a companion by nearly every other animal it meets.
7
Elephant
Loxodonta africana
The largest living land animal, recognizable by its long trunk and tusks, and remarkable for its complex social structures and matriarchal herds.
8
Hedgehog
Erinaceus europaeus (European hedgehog)
A small spiky insectivore beloved across Europe and Asia — covered in 5,000+ defensive spines, capable of curling into an impenetrable ball, and increasingly endangered by habitat loss in the UK.
9
Kangaroo
Osphranter rufus
The largest living marsupial and Australia's emblematic animal, a powerful hopper that can clear 9 m in a single leap and travel 70 km/h across arid plains.
10
Kinkajou
Potos flavus
A golden, nocturnal rainforest mammal related to raccoons — it has a prehensile tail for gripping branches, an extraordinarily long tongue for extracting flower nectar (making it an important pollinator), and large dark eyes adapted for night vision; it sleeps in hollow trees by day and is one of the few carnivores that has adopted a largely frugivorous and nectarivorous diet.
11
Mandrill
Mandrillus sphinx
The world's largest monkey and the most colourful mammal — males develop electric blue and red facial colouring and a brilliantly coloured rump; despite their fearsome appearance, mandrills are omnivorous and live in enormous groups called hordes.
12
Mongoose
Herpestidae (family)
A diverse African and Asian mammal family famous for snake-fighting prowess — about 35 species ranging from solitary forest dwellers to highly social pack animals like meerkats.
13
Pangolin
Manis spp. / Phataginus spp. / Smutsia spp.
A scaly nocturnal mammal that looks like an animated artichoke — the world's most heavily trafficked wild mammal, with all eight species under severe poaching pressure for traditional medicine markets.
14
Platypus
Ornithorhynchus anatinus
An egg-laying, beaver-tailed, duck-billed, otter-furred Australian mammal — among the oddest animals on Earth, with venomous spurs, electroreception, and one of evolution's most surprising survivors.
15
Red Panda
Ailurus fulgens
A cinnamon-red tree-dwelling mammal of the Himalayas and Chinese mountains — not closely related to the giant panda despite sharing its bamboo diet, it was discovered by European science 50 years before the giant panda and may have given pandas their name; it eats bamboo with the same false thumb (enlarged wrist bone) evolved independently in both species.
16
Reindeer
Rangifer tarandus
The only deer species in which both males and females grow antlers — domesticated for thousands of years by Arctic peoples for meat, milk, hide, and transport; famous in Western culture as Santa Claus's sleigh-pullers, based on real Sámi traditions of reindeer herding.
17
Squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis (Eastern grey); Sciurus vulgaris (Eurasian red); many species
A small bushy-tailed rodent of trees and parks — among the most successful suburban-adapted mammals, with hoarding behavior that accidentally plants countless trees each year.
18
Starfish
Asteroidea (class)
A radially symmetric marine invertebrate (more correctly called a sea star) with hundreds of tube feet, the ability to regenerate lost arms, and a unique digestive system that turns inside-out to feed.
19
Wild Boar
Sus scrofa
The ancestor of the domestic pig — a powerfully built, tusked omnivore with coarse grey-black bristles that has recolonised much of Europe and Asia; a major game animal, agricultural pest, and ecological engineer whose rooting transforms forest floors.
About 8-letter animals
That's our current list of animals with exactly 8 letters. Need a different length? Try the browse-by-length pills in the sidebar, or combine with a starting letter — for example, 8-letter animals that start with A.