70+ Animal Names in GermanVocabulary & Pronunciation

Unlike German numbers, asking for directions in German or telling the time in German, German animal names are actually fun to learn - really.

This is because German is pretty straightforward when it comes to animal vocabulary and often just takes the most obvious traits or characteristics of the animal and meshes it into a word.

Weird Animal Names
German animal names can be quite quirky. Anteater, for example, is der Nasenbär which literally means "nose bear". The German word for sloth is das Faultier: lazy animal.

Just take German animal names like Nasenbär (anteater) or Nashorn (rhino): It's like somebody asked a toddler to come up with some words for these animals!

In this blog post, we'll go through the most common German animal vocabulary. We'll start with pets & farm animals and then work our way through more exotic animals ("exotic" meaning that you won't find them in German forests) as well as bugs and insects.

Pets & House Animals 🐶

Let's start out with pets. Knowing the word for lion or zebra is great. But:

You're more likely to encounter a dog or a cat in the streets of Berlin (in the parks of Münster rabbits even!), than an anteater or a pot whale.

The German word for pet is Haustier, which literally means 'house animal'. The German words for dog and cat are also useful to know, as cats are the most popular pet in Germany.

der Hund
dog
die Katze
cat
der Hamster
hamster
der Goldfisch
gold fish
das Meerschweinchen
guinea pig
der Wellensittich
budgie
die Ratte
rat
das Kaninchen
rabbit

Farm Animals 🐮

Next up are farm animals. The expression 'farm animals' is Bauernhoftiere in German.

Young children & toddlers (at least here in Germany) can be obsessed with farm animals. So if you're learning German partly because you'd like to communicate with your 4 year old German nephew, you better memorise these words:

das Schwein
pig
das Pferd
horse
die Kuh
cow
das Huhn
chicken
der Hahn
rooster
das Küken
chick
das Kalb
calf
das Lamm
lamb
das Schaf
sheep

Little Timmy will thank you later.

Forest Animals 🌳

Forest animals take center stage in many German fairy tales & fables. If your goal is to read simple German stories as soon as possible, having a quick glance at these words makes a lot of sense.

Here are the most common German forest animals:

der Fuchs
fox
der Dachs
badger
der Hirsch
deer (male)
der Hase
rabbit
das Reh
deer
das Wildschwein
wild boar
das Eichhörnchen
squirrel
die Maus
mouse
das Wiesel
weasle
der Wolf
wolf

Exotic Animals 🦁

While you won't be able to find that many lions and zebras in the Schwarzwald, it can still be very useful to know the German words for exotic animals.

Now we have good news and bad news for you.

Let's start with the good news: If you have a look at this list, you might notice that it includes a bunch of German-English cognates:

der Tiger
tiger
der Elefant
elephant
die Giraffe
giraffe
das Nashorn
rhino
das Nilpferd
hippo
das Zebra
zebra
die Hyäne
hyena
die Antilope
antelope
der Löwe
lion

The German word for tiger is simply "der Tiger" and giraffe is just "die Giraffe". While these are spelled exactly the same in German, others are spelled only slightly differently, which makes learning these words a breeze (see 'der Elefant' or 'die Hyäne', for example).

The only bad news is that you will still have to memorize the gender for each noun. 🙈

Insects 🪲

Now off to the world of bugs, grubs & slugs: German words for insects!

die Ameise
ant
der Schmetterling
butterfly
der Käfer
bug
der Marienkäfer
ladybird
die Schnecke
snail
die Nacktschnecke
slug
die Made
maggot
die Spinne
spider

One useful thing to remember in this section is that the word Käfer is masculine: That means that every word that ends in -käfer will also be masculine. So Marienkäfer, Mistkäfer and all the other Käfer use the article "der".

Sea & Water Animals 🦀

Speaking from experience, there are two main reasons why people are learning the German words for sea and water animals:

First, if you're into oceanography, all things nautical or an absolute marine life nerd, then that's obviously a good reason to learn the German names for sea animals. If that's you: great. Here's your list:

der Hai
shark
der Wal
whale
der Fisch
fish
der Delfin
dolphin
die Schildkröte
turtle
die Qualle
jellyfish
der Schwertwal
orca
das Walross
walrus
der Seehund
seal
die Forelle
trout
der Barsch
bass
der Oktopus
octopus

It's more likely though that you're learning these words for another reason: You're into sea food and looking at this list makes you thing of Joe's Crab Shack.

If that's you, that's also fair: Bon appetit.

Birds 🦤

Birds are also often featured in German fables & fairy tales, so it makes sense to know the more common ones.

Note that most birds are masculine, though there are also a few whose grammatical gender is feminine:

der Vogel
bird
die Eule
owl
der Geier
vulture
der Rabe
raven
der Adler
eagle
der Falke
falcon
der Schwan
swan
der Pfau
peacock

PS: In case you're one of those language learners who absolutely loves to read the whole Harry Potter series in every single translation there is: The German word for owl is die Eule, and Harry Potter's owl Hedwig is a Schneeeule in German. Just saying.

We also have a separate blog post, just on the vocabulary for birds in German

Reptiles 🐍

Reptiles are the last group of animals we want to have a look at. So that means: snakes, lizards, turtles, and crocodiles.

Here's a short list of our cold-blooded friends:

das Krokodil
crocodile
das Chamäleon
chameleon
die Schlange
snake
der Leguan
iguana
der Frosch
frog
der Salamander
salamander

We also have a separate blog post, just on the names for reptiles in German

What animals are masculine and feminine in German?

Now, if you want to remember the grammatical gender of animals in German, that's not always easy. Sometimes it seems very intuitive, but at other times it makes no sense at all.

💡Grammatical Gender

In German, like many other languages, nouns are either masculine, feminine, or neuter. This grammatical gender is not related to the biological gender of the animal, but it does affect the forms of the article and some of the endings of adjectives (for example).

We recommend to learn the genders for the most important animals and endings (things like -vogel, or -käfer), so that you have solid basis. After that, remember that most birds are masculine, some are feminine, but they're rarely neuter (with chickens being an exception).

Just like with learning gender in general, make sure to not fret it. There is no point in bending over backwards to remember that der Salamander is masculine, if you rarely use this word in real life anyways.

Questions about German Animal Names

What gender do animals have in German?
How can I better remember German animal names?