75 animals containing the letter E — each with origin, classification, and notes.
Below are animals that contain the letter E anywhere in the name. Each of the 75 animals below opens to a full profile.
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.
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.
The most unusual primate on Earth — a nocturnal Madagascan lemur that uses a highly elongated, skeletal middle finger to tap on tree bark, listen for hollow chambers containing grubs, then gnaw through and extract the larvae; it fills the ecological niche of woodpeckers on an island where woodpeckers do not exist.
A massive omnivorous mammal with the broadest range of any bear species, including the grizzly and Kodiak subspecies, capable of hibernating for half the year.
A massive aquatic rodent — North America's largest rodent — that fundamentally reshapes landscapes through dam-building, creating wetlands that support biodiversity and modern landscape restoration efforts.
A large hump-backed desert mammal capable of going days without water — central to desert civilizations from Arabia to the Sahara, with two hump-counts (one and two) representing distinct species.
The famous colour-changing lizard — chameleons change colour not primarily for camouflage but to communicate mood, temperature regulation, and social status; they have independently rotating eyes that provide 360-degree vision, a tongue that launches at 13 km/h to catch insects, and feet designed like tongs for gripping branches.
The fastest land animal, a slender African cat built for short bursts of extreme speed but vulnerable to larger predators and habitat loss.
Humanity's closest living relative — sharing 98.7% of our DNA — a great ape of African forests with sophisticated tool use, complex social politics, and documented warfare between communities.
A secretive mid-sized cat of Southeast Asian forests with extraordinarily large canine teeth relative to its skull and the ability to descend trees headfirst — its cloud-like coat pattern gives it its name.
The striking leaf-eating monkey of African forest — the black-and-white colobus is one of Africa's most visually dramatic primates, with jet-black fur contrasting with white facial frame, a long white mantle over the shoulders, and a white-tipped tail; colobus monkeys eat mainly mature leaves that other primates avoid, relying on a specialised sacculated stomach to ferment and detoxify the leaf material.
A medium-sized wild canid that has thrived as humans have transformed North America — expanding from prairie origins to colonize all 49 mainland US states, suburbs, and major cities.
A large semi-aquatic reptilian predator that has changed remarkably little in 200 million years — the world's most powerful biting jaw and an apex predator of tropical rivers and estuaries.
Slender, antlered ruminants found across nearly all continents — from the white-tailed deer of North America to the European red deer to tropical muntjacs — among the most successful large mammals in human-altered landscapes.
Asia's wild dog — a highly social, pack-hunting canid of South and Southeast Asian forests that kills prey far larger than itself through cooperative strategy; dholes can drive tigers and leopards from their kills, communicate with extraordinary calls including whistles and clucks, and their packs may number over 30 individuals.
A patient, sure-footed working equid descended from the African wild ass — the world's primary cargo animal in mountainous and arid regions for over 5,000 years.
A general name for the largest birds of prey in the family Accipitridae — including the bald, golden, harpy, and Philippine eagles — apex predators with extraordinary vision and as many cultural symbolic meanings as cultures themselves.
A spiny egg-laying mammal of Australia and New Guinea — one of only five surviving monotremes — that uses an electroreceptive snout to locate buried ants, termites, and earthworms without using sight or smell.
The largest living land animal, recognizable by its long trunk and tusks, and remarkable for its complex social structures and matriarchal herds.
A massive marine mammal with males weighing 4 tons and sporting an inflatable trunk-like proboscis — one of the deepest-diving mammals on Earth, capable of submerging to 1,500 m for two-hour dives.
A large deer of North America and East Asia — second only to moose among living deer in size, with massive antlers grown anew every year by males.
The world's smallest fox — weighing just 1–2 kg, with disproportionately enormous ears that serve as radiators in the Sahara heat and as precision directional hearing for locating prey underground.
A domesticated polecat used for centuries to hunt rabbits — popular as a curious, energetic pet, with strong predatory instincts and a reputation for both companionship and mischief.
A swift, slender African and Asian antelope — about a dozen species ranging across savannas, deserts, and open grasslands, prized prey for cheetahs and lions, and a model of running efficiency.
Ethiopia's grass-eating monkey — the only primate that feeds primarily on grass, living in the high Simien Mountains in bands of hundreds that graze like sheep; males have a dramatic hourglass-shaped bare red chest patch that flushes brighter during excitement and serves as a substitute for the rump displays used by other primates.
The giraffe gazelle of East African thornbush — the gerenuk has an extraordinarily long neck and legs that allow it to stand bipedally on its hind legs to browse up to 2 metres high in acacia bushes; the only antelope that routinely stands on its hind legs to feed; a Somali name meaning giraffe-necked describes it precisely; unlike most antelopes, it never drinks water, obtaining all moisture from browse.
The tallest living land animal, with an extraordinarily long neck and legs and a patchwork coat unique to each individual.
A larger, faster cousin of the rabbit — distinguished by long legs, larger ears, solitary habits, and the dramatic spring boxing matches between competing males.
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.
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.
A powerful African scavenger and predator with the strongest bite force of any mammal — capable of crushing bones, organized in matriarchal clans of up to 80 individuals, and far more an active hunter than the scavenger reputation suggests.
A wild mountain goat with massive curved horns that lives on near-vertical cliff faces in the European Alps, recovered from near-extinction through 19th-century conservation.
A diverse group of marine cnidarians with translucent bodies and stinging tentacles — among Earth's oldest animals, with body plans essentially unchanged for 500+ million years and increasingly abundant in warming oceans.
A primate family endemic to Madagascar — over 100 species evolved in isolation for 60+ million years, ranging from the tiny mouse lemur to the dramatic ringtailed lemur, all critically threatened by deforestation.
The most adaptable big cat — found from African savannas to Russian taiga to urban Mumbai — with rosette-spotted fur, a powerful bite, and remarkable ability to haul prey twice its weight up trees.
A large marine crustacean — once a poor person's food in colonial New England, now an iconic luxury seafood and the foundation of major Maritime fisheries on both sides of the North Atlantic.
A massive, slow-moving aquatic herbivore — the "sea cow" of warm coastal waters — vegetarian, gentle, and inexplicably evolutionary close relatives of elephants.
The giraffe-legged wolf of South American grasslands — an unmistakable canid with improbably long legs, reddish-orange fur, a black mane, and large ears; the maned wolf is not closely related to wolves or foxes, being the sole member of its genus; it is an omnivore that eats more fruit than meat, and the wolf-apple (lobeira fruit) forms a large part of its diet.
A small social mongoose of southern African deserts — famous for upright sentinel posture, tightly cooperative family groups, and starring roles in nature documentaries and "The Lion King."
A small underground mammal with paddle-like front feet for digging — found across most of the northern hemisphere, dug-into-the-ground specialists with extraordinarily refined sense of touch and a near-permanent underground existence.
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.
A small, intelligent New World monkey famous for its tool use and dexterity, named after the brown-and-white robes of Capuchin friars and the most studied genus of monkey in cognitive research.
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.
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.
A bivalve mollusk attached to rocks and ropes by tough byssal threads — an ecologically critical filter feeder, a major sustainable seafood, and an emerging water quality indicator.
The wild ass of Asia — a fast, slender-legged equid midway between a horse and a donkey, the onager is built for speed across open desert steppe; in short sprints it can reach 70 km/h, making it one of the fastest land animals; populations have been severely reduced by hunting and habitat loss across most of their historical range; the Indian wild ass subspecies survives mainly in the Little Rann of Kutch.
A marine mustelid that floats on its back and uses stones as tools to crack shellfish, with the densest fur of any mammal and a key role in kelp-forest ecology.
A cat-sized mustelid of British and European forests — agile enough to chase squirrels through the tree canopy, the pine marten is one of Britain's rarest mammals; reintroduced to Wales and southern England, it is playing an unexpected role in reducing invasive grey squirrel populations, which flee the marten while native red squirrels learn to tolerate it.
A medium-large rodent armed with up to 30,000 barbed quills — solitary, slow-moving, and surprisingly difficult to predate due to a defense that has stopped lions, leopards, and pumas.
The monkey with the most extraordinary nose in the animal kingdom — the male's enormous, pendulous nose can grow longer than 10 cm, acts as a resonating chamber to amplify calls, and appears to be a signal of genetic fitness to females; found only in the rainforests and mangroves of Borneo.
Central America's most spectacular bird — the resplendent quetzal's emerald green tail feathers can reach 65 cm and were considered more valuable than gold by the Maya and Aztec civilisations; it is the national bird of Guatemala, depicted on the flag and currency, and remains a symbol of freedom as it refuses to survive long in captivity.
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.
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.
The second-largest land animal after the elephant, a massive grazing rhino with a square mouth and two horns, recovered from the brink of extinction but still poached for those horns.
A diverse order of amphibians with elongated bodies and tails — about 700 species worldwide, capable of regenerating limbs, organs, and even portions of the brain.
An eared seal — distinguishable from true seals by external ear flaps and front-flipper-driven swimming — with vocal "barking" colonies on rocky coasts and a long history of training for circuses, naval programs, and aquariums.
A semiaquatic marine mammal with streamlined body and flippers — the harbor seal of temperate coasts, with vocal "songs" of underwater communication, and life cycles split between sea hunting and land breeding.
Africa's most successful small wild cat — a tall, long-legged cat with enormous ears and a spotted coat, capable of leaping 3 metres into the air to bat down birds in flight; it has the highest hunting success rate of any wild cat, catching prey on more than half of all attempts.
A small ruminant raised for wool, meat, milk, and leather — among the earliest domesticated animals, with over a billion sheep alive worldwide today.
A shaggy, long-snouted bear of the Indian subcontinent — specialised as a termite and ant eater, with long curved claws for tearing open mounds, a mobile lower lip and long tongue for extracting insects, and the ability to close its nostrils to keep out dust; the sloth bear's noisy sucking sounds as it vacuums up termites can be heard from 100 metres away.
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.
The ghost of the mountains — a large cat of the high Himalayas and Central Asian ranges, rarely seen by humans; it has the longest tail relative to body size of any cat, which it wraps around itself like a scarf for warmth, and is known for its haunting, otherworldly call that sounds nothing like a roar.
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.
The world's smallest bear — a tree-climbing, honey-obsessed omnivore from Southeast Asia with an extraordinarily long tongue, a chest patch shaped like a rising sun, and an unexpectedly expressive face.
The primate with the largest eyes relative to body size of any mammal — a tiny nocturnal primate of Southeast Asian forests whose enormous, fixed eyes cannot move in their sockets (the animal must rotate its entire head to change direction of gaze); each eye is as large as its brain; it is the only entirely carnivorous primate, eating insects, lizards, and small birds.
The world's largest carnivorous marsupial — a stocky, jet-black scavenger and hunter from Tasmania, famous for its bone-crushing bite, spine-chilling screams, and its battle against a contagious facial tumour disease.
The largest cat species, an apex predator with distinctive orange-and-black stripes, native to Asian forests, grasslands, and mangroves.
A kangaroo that climbs trees — tree kangaroos are macropods that returned to an arboreal life from terrestrial ancestors, re-evolving the short, curved claws, flexible forelimbs, and long counterbalancing tail needed for life in the forest canopy; they are slow and clumsy on the ground but agile in trees, able to leap between branches and drop 18 metres to the forest floor without injury.
An ancient reptile order with a protective bony shell — over 350 species ranging from tiny musk turtles to massive sea turtles, with some species living over 150 years.
A small, slender, and ferociously efficient carnivore — capable of killing prey larger than itself, with seasonal coat color changes from brown to white in cold climates, distributed across most of the Northern Hemisphere.
The largest animals ever to live on Earth — ocean-dwelling mammals descended from hoofed land ancestors, with the blue whale's heart the size of a small car and the sperm whale's brain the largest ever.
A large African bovid famous for the greatest wildlife spectacle on Earth — the annual Serengeti migration, in which over 1.5 million wildebeest cross crocodile-filled rivers in a coordinated mass movement.
The largest terrestrial member of the weasel family — a stocky, ferocious scavenger of northern forests and tundra with disproportionate strength, known to drive wolves and cougars off kills many times its own size.
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.
The most common and widespread zebra species, a grazing horse with vivid black-and-white striping that lives in family bands across the African savanna.
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