1
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.
Below are animals that contain the letter H anywhere in the name. Each of the 24 animals below opens to a full profile.
List of Animals That Contain H
2
Chameleon
Chamaeleo chamaeleon (European chameleon); Furcifer pardalis (panther chameleon) and others
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.
3
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
The fastest land animal, a slender African cat built for short bursts of extreme speed but vulnerable to larger predators and habitat loss.
4
Chimpanzee
Pan troglodytes
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.
5
Dhole
Cuon alpinus
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.
6
Dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
A highly intelligent marine mammal found in oceans worldwide, famous for its sophisticated social behavior, problem-solving ability, and signature whistle communication.
7
Echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
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.
8
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.
9
Elephant Seal
Mirounga angustirostris (northern); Mirounga leonina (southern)
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.
10
Hare
Lepus (genus)
A larger, faster cousin of the rabbit — distinguished by long legs, larger ears, solitary habits, and the dramatic spring boxing matches between competing males.
11
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.
12
Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus amphibius
A massive, semiaquatic African mammal — the third-largest land animal after elephants and rhinos, with surprisingly close evolutionary ties to whales and a reputation as one of Africa's most dangerous animals.
13
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.
14
Hyena
Crocuta crocuta (spotted); Hyaena hyaena (striped); Hyaenidae family
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.
15
Jellyfish
Scyphozoa, Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, Staurozoa (classes)
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.
16
Markhor
Capra falconeri
The national animal of Pakistan — a large wild goat of the Himalayas and Hindu Kush with spectacular spiral horns that in old males can reach 160 cm; the horns spiral outward in a tight corkscrew, unique among wild goats; the markhor lives on vertiginous cliff faces inaccessible to most predators and is revered in the region — its Farsi name means "snake eater," though it does not actually eat snakes.
17
Narwhal
Monodon monoceros
An Arctic whale with a single long spiraled tusk — actually a tooth — that gives it the popular name "unicorn of the sea," found only in the high Arctic.
18
Rhinoceros
Ceratotherium simum
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.
19
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.
20
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.
21
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.
22
Sloth Bear
Melursus ursinus
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.
23
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.
24
Whale
Cetacea (infraorder); Balaenoptera musculus (blue whale, largest)
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.
Other ways to filter
Try animals that start with H, or end with H. Or browse the full animals index.