19 animals starting with the letter S — each with origin, classification, and notes.
If you've been searching for animals that start with S, you'll find 19 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.
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.
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.
A semiaquatic marine mammal with streamlined body and flippers — the harbor seal of temperate coasts, with vocal "songs" of underwater communication, and life cycles split between sea hunting and land breeding.
Africa's most successful small wild cat — a tall, long-legged cat with enormous ears and a spotted coat, capable of leaping 3 metres into the air to bat down birds in flight; it has the highest hunting success rate of any wild cat, catching prey on more than half of all attempts.
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.
A small ruminant raised for wool, meat, milk, and leather — among the earliest domesticated animals, with over a billion sheep alive worldwide today.
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 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.
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.
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.
A small bushy-tailed rodent of trees and parks — among the most successful suburban-adapted mammals, with hoarding behavior that accidentally plants countless trees each year.
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.
A small, fierce mustelid — an elongated, chestnut-brown predator with a cream underside and a black-tipped tail; stoats are specialist rabbit hunters, able to pursue prey much larger than themselves, and can send entire rabbit warrens into paralysed panic; in northern Britain and at altitude, they turn pure white (ermine) in winter, retaining only the black tail-tip.
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.
That's our current list of animals starting with the letter S. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite animal starting with S that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try animals that end with S, or contain S anywhere in the name.