58 animals containing the letter N — each with origin, classification, and notes.
Below are animals that contain the letter N anywhere in the name. Each of the 58 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.
A large, ground-dwelling Old World monkey with a distinctive dog-like muzzle, complex social hierarchies, and remarkable adaptability — found across sub-Saharan Africa and Arabia in five species.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A highly intelligent marine mammal found in oceans worldwide, famous for its sophisticated social behavior, problem-solving ability, and signature whistle communication.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
A large social cat and the only big cat that lives in groups, the lioness does most of the hunting while the maned male defends territory and pride.
A large, snow-adapted wild cat with characteristic ear tufts and short tail — four species spread across the northern hemisphere, with populations recovering from near-extinction in some regions.
A massive, slow-moving aquatic herbivore — the "sea cow" of warm coastal waters — vegetarian, gentle, and inexplicably evolutionary close relatives of elephants.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
A small, striped Australian marsupial that eats nothing but termites — one of Australia's most striking and critically endangered mammals, with a sticky tongue that can flick 100 times per minute.
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 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.
A black-and-white bear that subsists almost entirely on bamboo despite a carnivore's digestive system, and the international symbol of wildlife conservation.
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.
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.
A masked, dexterous-pawed nocturnal mammal of North American forests and cities — exceptionally intelligent, omnivorous, and notorious for cracking open garbage cans and pet food containers.
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.
The smallest wild cat of the deserts — a compact, sandy-coloured cat with enormous ears, densely furred paws, and adaptations for life in extreme heat and cold; sand cats can survive without drinking water for months, obtaining all moisture from their prey, and can dig rapidly into sand to escape heat or pursue prey; deceptively cute in appearance but a formidable desert predator.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ungainly giant of Himalayan forest — the takin looks improbable, like a goat that has been assembled from spare parts; it has the massive body of a musk ox, the Roman nose of a wildebeest, a short tail, and a yellow-gold coat; it is the national animal of Bhutan, where it is closely associated with the Divine Madman's legend; one of the larger bovids of Asia and a herd animal of dense rhododendron and bamboo forest.
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.
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.
A wild South American camelid living high in the Andes, prized for its fine and exceptionally rare wool — once almost driven to extinction, now recovered through aggressive conservation.
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.
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