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By Angela Martínez Last updated:

130+ Common Animals in Spanish (With a Downloadable PDF!)

Have you seen all of those Spanish-speaking countries on the map? As a whole, they’re huge, full of mountains, forests and jungles. 

Go there, and you’re bound to find a donkey next to your Uber or see a cow casually strolling by the sidewalk. (This happened a few times while I was visiting my grandmother in the Dominican Republic).

Whether you’re a Spanish learner or a curious traveler, you’ve got to know how to talk about animals in Spanish. 

This blog post will show you over 130 animal names in Spanish, expressions related to animals, animal classifications and important grammar rules.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Animals in Spanish

1. Common Pets in Spanish

cheerful man with pet dog

I’m not a pet lover, but I’m sure quite a few of you have pets at home.

Pet names in Spanish (not the kind you call your significant other), are good vocabulary to add to your language repertoire.

2. Farm Animals in Spanish

cows on a farm

Even if you don’t live near a farm, knowing farm animals’ names in Spanish will come in handy when you’re visiting areas of Spanish-speaking countries that are more rural.

And then again, some people have farm animals as pets!

3. Sea Creatures in Spanish

bottlenose dolphin

Our planet is 71% water. This water is full of sea creatures (over 240,000 species!) with fun names in Spanish worth learning.

Don’t worry, though. I’ve only included the most relevant ones you might catch a glimpse of at the beach.

4. Animals with Wings in Spanish

eagle on tree branch

Are you a bird enthusiast? If so, you’re gonna appreciate these 23 winged animal names in Spanish.

I thought about naming this list animals that fly. Then I figured—not all animals with wings have that ability!

5. Rainforest Animals in Spanish

sloth hanging from a tree

Learning Spanish for travel?

There’s a lot to see in South America—including the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest.

Pack this short list of rainforest animal names for when you’re sailing down the Amazon river.

6. Animals from the Forest in Spanish

deer in forest

Skunks and deer are common in the Northeast U.S. where I grew up. I’m not a nature enthusiast, though. Needless to say, I’d creep past skunks those early winter mornings when I got up for the gym.

I’m guessing you’ll need this list if you too grew up near these creatures, and if you want to tell your new Spanish-speaking friends all about them.

7. Desert Creatures in Spanish

camel in the desert

Fun fact: Chile’s Atacama desert is home to a resilient species of pink flamingos—and it’s one of the driest deserts in the world.

Deserts are common in Latin America.

Check out the short list of desert animals not already mentioned above or below.

8. Animals in the Savanna in Spanish

two tigers

Lots of animals in Spanish lists include “zoo animals in Spanish.” Though it’s practical, I prefer to keep the nature theme going.

Savannas are diverse environments full of beautiful (and deadly!) creatures—some of which I’m listed below.

9. Small Critters in Spanish

snail climbing up

La Cucaracha is a fun children’s song in Spanish, but cucarachas are no joke.

They live everywhere—and they creep most of us out!

I’ve got fifteen small animal names in Spanish that are worth adding to your Spanish vocabulary, even if you’re not too fond of them like me.

To remember these animal names, it helps to learn them in context too. For example, you can look them up on FluentU, which has a multimedia dictionary that shows you related Spanish video clips and example sentences for each word.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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Now that you know about specific animal names in Spanish, let’s look at grammar next.

Animal-related Vocabulary

A squirrel holding a nut

Common Female Animal Names

Animal Baby Names

Collective Nouns 

When talking about animals, you’ll often hear collective nouns—singular words that refer to groups of multiple things.

There are seven common collective nouns for Spanish animals, such as “herd,” “flock,” “litter” and more.

Animal Classification 

Now that you know how to say animal names in Spanish, let’s take it up a notch and learn how to talk about animal classification (la clasificación de los animales)!

Animal Body Parts

Spanish Expressions with Animal Names

Two donkeys interacting in front of a bush

You’re not speaking like a native until you’ve learned and mastered these expressions using animal names.

Just like with English, Spanish speakers utilize animal names in phrases that have nothing to do with them.

I’ll spare you the more dirty phrases in Spanish, and share common ones you might come across.

Grammar Rules for Talking About Animals in Spanish

cute hamster sitting on a bench

Vocabulary lists can only go so far without grammar rules!

Here are two helpful grammar rules for speaking about animals in Spanish.

Animal Gender in Spanish

As we’ve seen in the tables above, there are sometimes different names for animals depending on their gender. To learn them properly, you’ll just have to start using them!

  • Some animals go by the same name regardless of gender. E.g. pájaro (bird), tortuga (turtle)
  • Some animal names have variations for females. E.g. perro / perra (male / female dog), gato / gata (male / female cat)
  • Some animals have a completely different name for males and females. E.g. caballo / yegua (stallion / mare), gallo / gallina (rooster / hen)

If you’re unsure about the right word to use or you’d like to be crystal-clear about an animal’s sex, you can use hembra (female) or macho (male) after their name. For example:

Serpiente hembra — female snake

Tortuga macho — male turtle/tortoise

Using Diminutives for Animals in Spanish

If you want to refer to baby animals in Spanish, you can use diminutives to do so.

Diminutives are a Spanish suffix added to words to express something tiny or affection.

Simply remove the last vowel and add -ito or -ita at the end of the animal name. For example:

Gato (cat) → gatito / gatita

Perro (dog) → perrito / perrita

Ardilla (squirrel) → ardillita

You can also use cría (baby) plus de to refer to any baby animal:

Cría de lobo — baby wolf

Cría de elefante — baby elephant

 

This list of animal names in Spanish is a great starting point for adding unique vocabulary to your Spanish nature word bank.

Take your time with these Spanish animal names and study them part by part.

And One More Thing…

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

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FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

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Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.

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Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

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The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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