9 animals starting with the letter W — each with origin, classification, and notes.
If you've been searching for animals that start with W, 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.
A small to medium kangaroo relative — there's no clear biological distinction between kangaroo and wallaby; "wallaby" generally means smaller species — found across Australia, New Guinea, and as introduced populations in New Zealand, Britain, and Hawaii.
A massive Arctic marine mammal with iconic tusks — pinniped giant of the polar seas, weighing up to 2 tons, equipped with sensory whiskers that find clams in dark seabed mud.
A small, slender, and ferociously efficient carnivore — capable of killing prey larger than itself, with seasonal coat color changes from brown to white in cold climates, distributed across most of the Northern Hemisphere.
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.
The ancestor of the domestic pig — a powerfully built, tusked omnivore with coarse grey-black bristles that has recolonised much of Europe and Asia; a major game animal, agricultural pest, and ecological engineer whose rooting transforms forest floors.
A large African bovid famous for the greatest wildlife spectacle on Earth — the annual Serengeti migration, in which over 1.5 million wildebeest cross crocodile-filled rivers in a coordinated mass movement.
The largest wild canid, a deeply social pack-hunter with the broadest historical range of any wild mammal except humans, and ancestor to the domestic dog.
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.
A stocky, burrowing Australian marsupial famous for producing cube-shaped feces — the only animal in the world known to do so — and a backward-facing pouch that keeps soil out while digging.
That's our current list of animals starting with the letter W. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite animal starting with W that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try animals that end with W, or contain W anywhere in the name.