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Alligator
Alligator (genus, two species)
A large freshwater reptilian predator native to the southeastern United States and a small enclave in eastern China — distinct from crocodiles in habitat, snout shape, and temperament.
Below are animals that contain the letter G anywhere in the name. Each of the 29 animals below opens to a full profile.
List of Animals That Contain G
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Binturong
Arctictis binturong
The "bearcat" of Southeast Asian forests — a shaggy, long-tailed civet relative that smells strongly of popcorn (from a chemical it produces to mark territory), uses its prehensile tail to hang from branches, and is one of the only mammals that can delay its own pregnancy through embryonic diapause.
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Dingo
Canis lupus dingo
Australia's wild dog — a lean, amber-coated canid that arrived from Asia at least 3,500 years ago and now sits at the top of the mainland food chain as the continent's largest terrestrial predator.
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Eagle
Aquila chrysaetos (golden); Haliaeetus leucocephalus (bald — see Birds entry)
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.
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Frog
Anura (order)
A diverse order of tailless amphibians — over 7,000 species worldwide, ranging from microscopic to football-sized, with skin that breathes, tongues that snap, and an outsized role in ecological monitoring.
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Galago
Galago senegalensis (and related species)
The bush baby of African nights — small, doe-eyed primates with enormous forward-facing eyes for night vision, vast membranous ears that fold flat when resting, and extraordinary leaping ability; galagos can jump up to 2.25 metres in a single spring using powerful back legs; their plaintive cry in the African night sounds disconcertingly like a crying human infant, giving rise to the name bush baby.
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Gazelle
Gazella (genus)
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.
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Gelada
Theropithecus gelada
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.
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Gerenuk
Litocranius walleri
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.
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Gibbon
Hylobatidae (family)
A small, tail-less Asian ape that swings through forest canopies with extraordinary grace — the smallest of the apes, monogamous, and famous for elaborate songs that echo through Southeast Asian rainforests at dawn.
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Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
The tallest living land animal, with an extraordinarily long neck and legs and a patchwork coat unique to each individual.
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Goat
Capra hircus
A small horned ruminant domesticated alongside sheep at the dawn of agriculture — kept globally for milk, meat, fiber, and as remarkable browsers in difficult terrain.
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Gorilla
Gorilla beringei (eastern); Gorilla gorilla (western)
The largest living primate — gentle vegetarian forest dwellers of Central Africa, organized in family groups led by silverback males, with tragic conservation crises across all four subspecies.
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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.
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Iguana
Iguana iguana
A large, tree-dwelling Central American lizard with a row of dorsal spines and a long tail, herbivorous despite its dragon-like appearance, popular as both pet and (in some regions) food.
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Jaguar
Panthera onca
The largest cat in the Americas and the third-largest in the world, a powerfully built ambush predator with the strongest pound-for-pound bite force of any big cat.
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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.
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Komodo Dragon
Varanus komodoensis
The world's largest living lizard — a monitor lizard of the Indonesian islands that can reach 3 metres and 70 kg, kills large prey including deer and water buffalo with venom-laced saliva and a bacteria-laden bite, and can reproduce by parthenogenesis; its ancient lineage and isolated island habitat make it genuinely prehistoric in character.
19
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.
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Nilgai
Boselaphus tragocamelus
The largest Asian antelope — the nilgai (or blue bull) is a horse-sized bovid with a distinctively horse-like gait and a sloping back; males are slate-blue with a white patch on the throat, white ear spots, and short conical horns; females are tawny-brown and hornless; the nilgai is the most common large wild mammal of the Indian plains, coexisting with agriculture and often raiding crops.
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Onager
Equus hemionus
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.
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Orangutan
Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean); P. abelii (Sumatran); P. tapanuliensis (Tapanuli)
A large reddish-orange great ape of Southeast Asian rainforests — the only great ape outside Africa, exclusively arboreal, with deep cognitive abilities and a critical conservation crisis.
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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.
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Pig
Sus scrofa domesticus
A highly intelligent omnivorous mammal domesticated independently in Asia and Europe — one of the world's most-eaten meats and a working model for human medicine.
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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.
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Siamang
Symphalangus syndactylus
The largest of the gibbons — a black, shaggy ape of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra that produces one of the loudest calls of any land animal using an inflatable throat sac the size of a grapefruit; pairs bond for life and sing coordinated duets that carry through rainforest for kilometres.
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Springbok
Antidorcas marsupialis
South Africa's national animal and emblem — a graceful medium-sized antelope of the Karoo and Kalahari known for its spectacular "pronking" display, in which it springs repeatedly into the air with arched back and stiff legs; once migrated in herds of millions across southern Africa.
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Tiger
Panthera tigris
The largest cat species, an apex predator with distinctive orange-and-black stripes, native to Asian forests, grasslands, and mangroves.
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Tree Kangaroo
Dendrolagus species
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.
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