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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.
If you've been searching for animals that start with A, you'll find 8 detailed animals below. We're not interested in giving you only a list of names — every entry on this page links to a full profile with the kind of detail you'd actually want to know.
For animals, that means taxonomy, habitat, diet, range, lifespan, and conservation status.
List of Animals That Start With A
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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.
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Alpaca
Vicugna pacos
A small South American camelid bred for fine wool — domesticated by Andean civilizations 6,000+ years ago, now a global niche livestock animal whose fleece rivals cashmere for softness.
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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.
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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.
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Armadillo
Dasypus novemcinctus
A small American mammal armored in bony plates, the only mammal that gives birth to identical quadruplets and one of the few wild carriers of leprosy.
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Axolotl
Ambystoma mexicanum
The Mexican salamander that never grows up — an aquatic salamander that retains its larval features throughout adult life (a condition called neoteny), keeping its external gills as feathery plumes; it can regenerate entire limbs, spinal cord segments, and even parts of the heart and brain; critically endangered in the wild but kept by millions as a pet.
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Aye-Aye
Daubentonia madagascariensis
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.
About animals starting with A
That's our current list of animals starting with the letter A. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite animal starting with A that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try animals that end with A, or contain A anywhere in the name.