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Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
A black-and-white bear that subsists almost entirely on bamboo despite a carnivore's digestive system, and the international symbol of wildlife conservation.
If you've been searching for animals that start with P, you'll find 9 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.
Table of contents
| Panda | Pangolin | Pig | Pika |
| Pine Marten | Platypus | Porcupine | Proboscis Monkey |
| Puma |
List of Animals That Start With P
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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.
3
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.
4
Pika
Ochotona princeps (American pika) and related species
A small, round-eared relative of rabbits that lives on rocky mountain slopes and alpine meadows — unlike its rabbit relatives, it does not hibernate but instead spends summer frantically collecting and drying grasses and wildflowers into hay piles for winter; its distinctive high-pitched call echoes across talus slopes.
5
Pine Marten
Martes martes
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.
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Platypus
Ornithorhynchus anatinus
An egg-laying, beaver-tailed, duck-billed, otter-furred Australian mammal — among the oddest animals on Earth, with venomous spurs, electroreception, and one of evolution's most surprising survivors.
7
Porcupine
Erethizon dorsatum (North American); Hystrix cristata (African)
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.
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Proboscis Monkey
Nasalis larvatus
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.
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Puma
Puma concolor
The Americas' most widely distributed large cat — known also as cougar, mountain lion, and panther — a powerful, adaptable solitary hunter that ranges from the Canadian Yukon to Patagonia.
About animals starting with P
That's our current list of animals starting with the letter P. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite animal starting with P that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try animals that end with P, or contain P anywhere in the name.