Animal Word Search Printable PDF with Answer Key and Clues

Press New puzzle for another grid, or pick one of 11 animal lists, then print it with its answer key.

Name Date

Animal Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

WTRMIDECGQMOTLO

RPARROTHORSEORG

ZTNRXZWEXFPNFGR

PACAMELELEPHANT

LKSJBBLTULOINEI

AWNATRMAPBCAPNG

NHENCALHEXTAPNE

UIYFLAMINGOSHIR

HADNJFEEGIPGXHY

CHAMSTERURUTPOR

RNEUPCAMIASHARK

LIONTOSDNFIIBGV

NFFFOXTEYFSEOIE

NPXTQOSNWEHIIDN

QEOPEMAPHCPANDA

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

GiraffeGIRAFFE
ElephantELEPHANT
ZebraZEBRA
LionLION
TigerTIGER
CheetahCHEETAH
PandaPANDA
PenguinPENGUIN
FlamingoFLAMINGO
HamsterHAMSTER
HorseHORSE
FoxFOX
ParrotPARROT
CamelCAMEL
SharkSHARK
OctopusOCTOPUS

16 of 24 words from the Animal Favorites list.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

More options

Show clues, not words

Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: Animal Word Search

WTRMIDECGQMOTLO

RPARROTHORSEORG

ZTNRXZWEXFPNFGR

PACAMELELEPHANT

LKSJBBLTULOINEI

AWNATRMAPBCAPNG

NHENCALHEXTAPNE

UIYFLAMINGOSHIR

HADNJFEEGIPGXHY

CHAMSTERURUTPOR

RNEUPCAMIASHARK

LIONTOSDNFIIBGV

NFFFOXTEYFSEOIE

NPXTQOSNWEHIIDN

QEOPEMAPHCPANDA

GIRAFFE, ELEPHANT, ZEBRA, LION, TIGER, CHEETAH, PANDA, PENGUIN, FLAMINGO, HAMSTER, HORSE, FOX, PARROT, CAMEL, SHARK, OCTOPUS

Next step Build a puzzle from your own animal list Scramble the same animal names

All 137 animals

Zoo Animals 20

Baboon A large monkey with a long, dog-like muzzle. It lives in a troop and spends much of its time on the ground.
Cheetah The fastest land animal. Black streaks run like tear marks down its face.
Elephant The largest living land animal. Its trunk can suck up water and squirt it into the mouth.
Flamingo A wading bird that turns pink from pigments in its food. It usually stands on one leg.
Giraffe The tallest living land animal. Its long neck holds just 7 neck bones, the usual number for a mammal.
Gorilla The largest living primate. Troops in the forests of central Africa are led by a silverback male.
Hippopotamus Its name comes from Greek words for river horse. It stays in water by day and comes out at dusk to graze.
Hyena The spotted kind is known for a call like laughter. It lives in a clan and both hunts and scavenges.
Kangaroo A marsupial of Australia and New Guinea that hops on powerful back legs. Its baby, a joey, grows in a pouch.
Koala An Australian marsupial, not a bear. It eats eucalyptus leaves and can sleep up to 20 hours a day.

Show all 137 animals (127 more)

Zoo Animals, continued

Leopard A big cat of Africa and Asia whose spots form rosettes. It sometimes drags its catch up a tree.
Lion A big cat of Africa and India that lives in a group called a pride. Adult males have a mane.
Ostrich The largest living bird. It cannot fly, but no animal on two legs runs faster.
Panda A black and white bear found only in China. Bamboo makes up about 99 percent of what it eats.
Peacock The male peafowl. He fans out a train of long feathers marked with eyespots.
Penguin A flightless seabird whose wings work as flippers. Nearly all kinds live south of the equator.
Rhinoceros A heavy plant eater. Its 1 or 2 horns are keratin, the stuff your fingernails are made of.
Tiger A big cat of Asia, orange with black stripes. It lives and hunts mostly alone.
Warthog A wild African pig with two pairs of tusks. It often kneels on its front legs to feed.
Zebra An African relative of the horse. Every one has its own pattern of black and white stripes.

Pets 17

Canary A small songbird of the finch family, named after a group of Spanish islands in the Atlantic.
Cat Tamed in the Near East about 9,500 years ago. It purrs, hisses and meows.
Chinchilla A rodent from the Andes with the densest fur of any land mammal. It cleans itself in dust, not water.
Dog The first animal people ever tamed, more than 14,000 years ago. It descends from wolves.
Ferret A tame relative of the polecat that sleeps 14 to 18 hours a day. People once used it to hunt rabbits.
Gecko A lizard known for its chirps. Many kinds have sticky toe pads and can walk across a ceiling.
Gerbil A small burrowing rodent from the dry grasslands of Mongolia and China. Its tail is almost as long as its body.
Goldfish A pet fish of the carp family. People in China bred it for its color over 1,000 years ago.
Guinea Pig A rodent first raised in the Andes, with no tail to speak of. Its two-word name is misleading on both counts.
Guppy A tiny tropical fish from northeast South America. It does not lay eggs: its young are born live.
Hamster A small rodent that carries food home in cheek pouches that reach back to its shoulders.
Kitten A baby cat. Its eyes stay shut for the first 7 to 10 days.
Mouse A small rodent. Its snout is pointed, its ears are big and round, and its tail is long.
Parakeet Another name for the budgie, a small long-tailed parrot from Australia. Wild ones are green and yellow.
Puppy A young dog. It is born with its eyes closed, and they open after about 9 to 11 days.
Rabbit Long ears and strong back legs. Wild European ones live in a network of burrows called a warren.
Turtle A reptile whose shell grows mainly from its ribs. Even the sea kinds lay their eggs on land.

Farm Animals 16

Alpaca A woolly relative of the llama from the Andes, bred for its soft fleece rather than for carrying loads.
Calf A young cow or bull. The same word is used for a young elephant, whale, giraffe or hippo.
Cow Raised for milk and meat. Its stomach has 4 compartments, and it chews its food a second time.
Donkey People have put it to work for at least 5,000 years. It has large ears, and its call is a bray.
Duck A water bird with webbed feet. The male is called a drake.
Goat An agile climber with horizontal, slit-shaped pupils. Its young are called kids.
Goose The male is a gander and the young are goslings. Flocks fly in a V, which saves energy.
Hen An adult female chicken. Her comb is smaller than the male bird's.
Horse It can sleep standing up or lying down. Its height is measured in hands, and 1 hand is 4 inches.
Lamb A young sheep. The flock it grows up in is raised for fleece, meat and milk.
Llama A South American pack animal of the camel family with no hump. It sometimes spits at others in its herd.
Pig It rolls in mud to cool off because it has few sweat glands. Its snout digs in the soil for food.
Pony A small horse, usually under 14.2 hands when fully grown. It is not a baby horse.
Rooster The North American name for an adult male chicken. His loud crow tells other males to keep away.
Sheep Raised for its fleece, meat and milk. A group is called a flock.
Turkey A large farm bird first raised in Mexico. The male is a tom, and his call is a gobble.

Forest Animals 18

Badger The European kind has a black and white striped face and sleeps by day in a burrow called a sett.
Bat The only mammal that can truly fly. Many kinds find insects in the dark by echolocation.
Bear There are 8 living kinds. Its sense of smell is excellent, and many northern ones sleep through winter in a den.
Beaver The second-largest rodent. It fells trees with orange front teeth and builds dams and lodges.
Chipmunk A small striped squirrel that carries food to its burrow in cheek pouches.
Deer Males of almost every kind grow and shed a new set of antlers each year. The young of small kinds are fawns.
Fox A bushy-tailed wild relative of the dog. The young of the red kind are called kits or cubs.
Hedgehog When threatened it curls up into a tight ball of spines. It is mostly active at night, and no kind is native to the Americas.
Lynx A wild cat with a short tail, black ear tufts and big padded paws that help it walk on snow.
Moose The largest and tallest deer. Males carry broad, flat antlers. In Britain it is called an elk.
Otter A playful swimmer of the weasel family with webbed feet. Its den is called a holt.
Owl It can turn its head as much as 270 degrees because its eyes cannot move. Most kinds hunt at night.
Porcupine A large rodent covered in sharp quills. It cannot shoot them, whatever the stories say.
Raccoon A North American mammal with a black mask and a ringed tail. Its front paws are very nimble.
Skunk When threatened it sprays a foul, strong-smelling liquid. Its bold coat is a warning.
Squirrel A bushy-tailed rodent that hides nuts for later. Its front teeth never stop growing.
Wolf The largest wild member of the dog family. It lives in a family pack and howls to call the others.
Woodpecker It drums on tree trunks with its beak and pulls out insects with a long, sticky tongue.

Rainforest Animals 18

Anaconda The green kind is the heaviest snake in the world. It squeezes its prey and spends most of its time in water.
Capybara The largest living rodent. It lives in groups near water in South America and has slightly webbed feet.
Chameleon Each eye moves on its own, and its long tongue shoots out to catch prey. Some kinds change color.
Chimpanzee A great ape of African forests that uses sticks to fish for termites. It is one of our closest living relatives.
Iguana The green kind is a large tree-living lizard with a row of spines down its back. It swims with strokes of its tail.
Jaguar The biggest cat in the Americas. It swims well, and its rosettes often have a spot in the middle.
Lemur A primate found only on Madagascar. Its name comes from a Latin word for ghosts.
Macaw A large, long-tailed, colorful parrot of Central and South America with a bare patch on its face.
Monkey A primate that often lives in trees and is mostly active by day. Many American kinds have long tails, and a few can grip with them.
Ocelot A spotted wild cat of the Americas, about the size of a bobcat. It hunts mostly at twilight and at night.
Okapi The giraffe's only living relative. It has striped legs like a zebra and lives in the rainforest of the Congo.
Orangutan A great ape of Borneo and Sumatra that spends most of its time in trees. Its name comes from Malay for person and forest.
Parrot A bird with a strong curved beak and 2 toes pointing forward, 2 back. Many kinds can copy human speech.
Piranha A South American river fish. Each jaw holds one row of sharp teeth. It also eats fruit and seeds.
Sloth It hangs upside down and moves so little that green algae grow in its fur. It climbs down about once a week.
Tapir It has a short, bendy trunk. Its closest living relatives are horses and rhinos.
Tarantula A large, hairy spider. Some kinds flick itchy hairs at an attacker with their back legs.
Toucan Its huge, colorful bill is very light. It lives in the forests of Central and South America and eats mostly fruit.

Arctic Animals 16

Arctic Fox Most turn from brown in summer to white in winter. Fur even covers the soles of the feet.
Beluga A white whale with no back fin, nicknamed the sea canary for its high-pitched calls.
Caribou The North American name for reindeer. It is the only deer whose females may grow antlers too.
Eider A large sea duck of northern coasts. The female lines her nest with soft down plucked from her own breast.
Ermine A stoat in its winter coat, pure white except for the black tip of its tail.
Lemming A small tundra rodent that stays awake all winter in tunnels under the snow. It does not jump off cliffs.
Musk Ox A shaggy grazer of the far north. Sheep and goats are closer relatives of it than cattle are. Adults form a ring around the calves.
Narwhal A whale of the far north. Its spiral tusk is really a tooth that can grow 1.5 to 3 meters long.
Polar Bear The largest land carnivore. Its skin is black and its hairs are see-through, so it only looks white.
Ptarmigan A grouse of the tundra with feathered legs. It is white in winter and gray and brown in summer.
Puffin A seabird whose beak turns bright in the breeding season. It nests in a burrow and swims with its wings.
Seal A sea mammal with flippers and a thick layer of blubber. It comes onto land or ice to rest and have pups.
Snowy Owl A large white bird of the tundra that nests on the ground and, unlike most of its relatives, often hunts by day.
Tern One kind makes the longest migration of any animal, from the far north to Antarctica and back each year, and sees 2 summers.
Walrus A huge sea mammal of the far north with long tusks and hundreds of whiskers. The tusks help it climb onto ice.
Wolverine The largest land member of the weasel family, known for strength far beyond its size.

Desert Animals 16

Bighorn A wild sheep of North America. A ram's curled horns can weigh up to 30 pounds, and rivals crash heads.
Camel Its hump stores fat, not water. Long eyelashes and nostrils that close keep out blowing sand.
Coyote A wild North American dog, smaller than a wolf. Its name reached English through Spanish from the Nahuatl language.
Dingo A wild dog of Australia, most often ginger in color. It howls a lot and rarely barks.
Fennec The smallest fox. Its huge ears shed heat and pick up prey moving under the Sahara sand.
Jackrabbit Despite its name it is a hare. It has very long ears and powerful back legs, and lives in dry country of the American West.
Jerboa A tiny desert rodent of North Africa and Asia that hops like a kangaroo. Its tail is longer than its body.
Lizard A scaly reptile. Many kinds can drop their tail to escape, then grow part of it back. There are over 7,000 kinds.
Meerkat A small mongoose of southern Africa. Some stand upright on watch while the rest of the group looks for food.
Oryx A large desert antelope with long, nearly straight horns. It can last for long periods with no water.
Rattlesnake A venomous snake of the Americas. It shakes the noisy tip of its tail as a warning, and the tip grows with each shed skin.
Roadrunner A long-legged cuckoo of the American Southwest that sprints at 20 miles per hour and eats lizards and young snakes.
Scorpion An arachnid with 8 legs, 2 pincers and a stinger on its tail. It glows under ultraviolet light.
Sidewinder A rattlesnake that travels sideways over loose sand, leaving J-shaped tracks. Horn-like scales sit above its eyes.
Tortoise A slow land turtle. Some have lived for more than 150 years, longer than any other land animal.
Vulture A scavenging bird that feeds on animals that are already dead. Many kinds have a bald head.

Ocean Animals 16

Crab A crustacean with a hard shell and a pair of claws. Many kinds run sideways.
Dolphin A sea mammal that breathes through a blowhole and finds its way with clicks. It sleeps with half its brain at a time.
Jellyfish An umbrella-shaped bell, stinging tentacles and no true brain. Its kind has drifted the seas for 500 million years or more.
Lobster It walks the sea floor on 8 legs and has 2 big front claws. Its blood is blue.
Manatee A slow, gentle plant eater sometimes called a sea cow. Its tail is shaped like a paddle, and elephants are its relatives.
Octopus It has 8 arms, 3 hearts and bluish blood. Its soft body can squeeze through tiny gaps.
Orca The largest member of the dolphin family, black above and white below. Family pods hunt together.
Pelican A large water bird. The pouch under its long beak scoops up fish and drains the water before it swallows.
Seahorse A small fish that swims upright and grips plants with its tail. The male carries the eggs in a pouch.
Shark A fish whose skeleton is cartilage, not bone. It grows new teeth all its life.
Shrimp A small crustacean with very long whiskers. A flick of its tail shoots it backwards out of danger.
Squid It has 8 arms and 2 longer tentacles. It swims by jet propulsion and hides behind a cloud of ink.
Starfish Most have 5 arms and can regrow one that is lost. It creeps along on tiny tube feet.
Stingray A flat relative of the shark that hides under sand on the sea floor. Its tail carries a barbed spine.
Swordfish A large, fast hunter whose long flat bill slashes at prey rather than spearing it.
Whale No animal known has ever been bigger than the blue kind, about 30 meters long. It eats tiny krill.

How this list was compiled: 137 animal names in eight habitat lists, and no animal sits in two habitats. Every fact was checked on 2026-09-18 against the animal's own English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the article name). Musk Ox, Bighorn and Fennec were also checked on English Wiktionary that day. Licence: own work

How it works

This animal word search printable PDF page opens on a finished puzzle: 16 animals, Giraffe, Penguin and Octopus among them, hidden across and down. New puzzle deals another 16 from the 24 Animal Favorites, one of 11 lists.

Read the full guide

Eight lists by home, plus an easy and a hard one

Start from a list sorts the 137 animals by home: Zoo Animals, Pets, and Farm, Forest, Rainforest, Arctic, Desert and Ocean Animals. Easy Animals and Hard Animals sort by length instead. Hard Animals holds 36 names of 8 to 12 letters, from Elephant to Hippopotamus. Press Hard as well and they run in every direction, backwards too.

Turn the word list into riddles

Tick Show clues, not words in More options. Each name gives way to its fact, so pupils read "It has 8 arms, 3 hearts and bluish blood" and hunt for Octopus. The printed answer key still names every animal.

After the hunt, pupils sort their 16 animals into mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and animals without a backbone.
Penguin sits under Zoo Animals, not Arctic Animals: nearly all penguins live south of the equator.
Studying one local habitat? Type over words in the list under the grid with your own animals, class pet included.

Questions and answers

Are these animal word searches printable for a whole class?

Yes. Press New puzzle between prints and each pupil gets a different 16 animals in a fresh layout. Or give each table its own habitat list: no animal sits in two of the eight, so Arctic Animals and Desert Animals share nothing.

How do I get the animal word search PDF with its answer key?

Press Print or save as PDF; there is no separate download. On a computer, choose Save as PDF in the print window. On a phone or tablet, use the save or share option in the print preview. The file has 2 pages: puzzle, then key.

Is there an animal word search easy enough for kindergarten?

Yes. Pick Easy Animals, 50 names of 3 to 5 letters such as Cat, Owl and Goat, and stay on Easy so words run only across and down. Then open More options and tick Large print.

All 137 animals

Zoo Animals 20

Zoo Animals, continued

Pets 17

Farm Animals 16

Forest Animals 18

Rainforest Animals 18

Arctic Animals 16

Desert Animals 16

Ocean Animals 16

How it works

Eight lists by home, plus an easy and a hard one

Turn the word list into riddles

Questions and answers

More tools