Printable Zoo Word Search

New puzzle deals 16 zoo and safari words into a fresh grid; print it with the answer key.

Name Date

Zoo Word Search

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

0 of 16 words found

TZOOKEEPERMORVO

UTICKETYUPYTHON

KEPLCHEETAHCIOA

KLGDRRWGLPQOPNH

SEAAOHZKNEHEPTL

DPQNSAFARITLOIR

EHUMRHINOOOSRII

SAAHNFBGERRVMMB

GNRSDJTARATBMYN

ITIRXAHRINOOUOT

RPURNGKOOGIATTQ

NEMRTUIORUSHRPH

AAWLUAWUGTETRAY

NGDGORILLALNSRS

EZLDDXCMANEADRC

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.

CheetahCHEETAH
JaguarJAGUAR
ManeMANE
GorillaGORILLA
OrangutanORANGUTAN
KiwiKIWI
PythonPYTHON
TortoiseTORTOISE
ElephantELEPHANT
RhinoRHINO
HippoHIPPO
SafariSAFARI
ZookeeperZOOKEEPER
AquariumAQUARIUM
TicketTICKET
KangarooKANGAROO

16 of 24 words from the Zoo Favorites list.

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Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

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

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Answer key: Zoo Word Search

TZOOKEEPERMORVO

UTICKETYUPYTHON

KEPLCHEETAHCIOA

KLGDRRWGLPQOPNH

SEAAOHZKNEHEPTL

DPQNSAFARITLOIR

EHUMRHINOOOSRII

SAAHNFBGERRVMMB

GNRSDJTARATBMYN

ITIRXAHRINOOUOT

RPURNGKOOGIATTQ

NEMRTUIORUSHRPH

AAWLUAWUGTETRAY

NGDGORILLALNSRS

EZLDDXCMANEADRC

CHEETAH, JAGUAR, MANE, GORILLA, ORANGUTAN, KIWI, PYTHON, TORTOISE, ELEPHANT, RHINO, HIPPO, SAFARI, ZOOKEEPER, AQUARIUM, TICKET, KANGAROO

Next step Make a puzzle from the animals your class saw Scramble the same zoo words

All 91 words

Big and Small Cats 16

Bobcat A North American wild cat, also known as the red lynx.
Caracal A wild cat with long tufted ears and a sandy coat.
Cheetah No animal on land can outrun this spotted cat, a hunter that chases its prey down.
Cub The name for a baby panda, cheetah or tiger.
Jaguar A powerful spotted cat of the Americas whose bite can pierce a turtle's shell.
Lion A muscular cat with a broad chest and a dark tuft of hair on the end of its tail.
Mane The thick ruff that marks a grown male lion.
Margay A small forest cat of Central and South America that is active at night.
Pride Lions live together in one of these.
Puma A large cat of the Americas, also called cougar or mountain lion.
Roar The deep, loud call of a lion or tiger.
Serval A small wild cat of Africa's grasslands and wetlands.
Snow Leopard A solitary spotted cat of the Himalayas and other high ranges of Asia, most active at dawn and twilight.
Spots The solid black marks all over a cheetah's coat.
Stripes The black bands on a tiger's orange coat.
Tiger A large, muscular cat native to Asia that lives mainly in forests.

Show all 91 words (75 more)

Apes and Monkeys 14

Bonobo A great ape with long limbs and a dark face, one of only two kinds in the chimpanzee's genus.
Capuchin A monkey of the Americas known for cracking nuts open with tools.
Colobus A black-and-white monkey of Africa.
Gibbon A lesser ape of the forests of Southeast Asia.
Gorilla A great ape of the forests of Africa that eats mostly plants.
Howler A monkey of the Americas whose loud call carries a long way through the forest.
Macaque A monkey of Asia and North Africa that eats mostly fruit.
Mandrill A large monkey of west central Africa; few mammals anywhere are as colorful.
Marmoset A tiny monkey of the Americas; most are about 8 inches long.
Orangutan A great ape found today only on two islands of Southeast Asia.
Siamang The largest of the gibbons, with black fur.
Silverback A grown male gorilla, named for the pale hair across his back.
Tamarin A monkey of the Americas about the size of a squirrel.
Troop A group of monkeys or baboons that live together.

Zoo Birds 13

Aviary A large cage or building where birds have room to fly.
Cockatoo A kind of parrot native to Australasia.
Condor A vulture of the Andes mountains, among the biggest birds that can fly.
Crane A tall bird that flies with its neck and legs stretched straight out, not bent like a heron's.
Emu A long-legged runner with soft brown feathers, found across most of mainland Australia.
Flamingo A pink wader; four kinds live in the Americas and two in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Hornbill A bird of Africa and Asia with a long, down-curved beak.
Ibis A long-legged wading bird of wetlands, forests and plains.
Kiwi The smallest relative of the ostrich and the emu, found only in New Zealand.
Peafowl The bird whose male is the peacock and whose female is the peahen.
Rhea A large flightless bird of South America, a distant relative of the ostrich.
Shoebill A big wading bird on long legs, named for the shape of its enormous beak.
Stork A wader with a long, stout beak that tends to live in drier places than herons do.

Reptile House 10

Basking Lying in the sun to warm up, as reptiles do.
Boa A large, heavy snake of tropical South America that has no venom.
Caiman A smaller relative of the alligator from Central and South America.
Gharial A river crocodilian of the northern Indian subcontinent; the grown male has a knob on the end of its snout.
Gila Monster A sluggish lizard up to 22 inches long whose lower teeth have grooves that carry venom.
Komodo Dragon The largest living lizard, found on a few islands of Indonesia.
Python A snake with no venom that squeezes its prey; some kinds are among the world's largest snakes.
Terrarium A glass tank set up with soil and plants for small land animals.
Tortoise A reptile that pulls its head and neck straight back into its hard shell.
Tuatara A reptile of New Zealand that looks like a lizard but is the last of its own order.

African Safari 18

Aardvark A burrowing African mammal that is active at night.
Buffalo A heavily built, broad-headed wild bovine of Africa south of the Sahara.
Eland A very large antelope of the plains of East and Southern Africa.
Elephant A gray giant with pillar-like legs and big ear flaps; nothing on land is larger.
Giraffe An African hoofed mammal with an extremely long neck, a spotted coat and horn-like knobs on its head.
Hippo The short name of a large African mammal that spends much of its life in water.
Impala An antelope whose coat is glossy and reddish brown; the male's slender horns are shaped like a lyre.
Jackal A wild member of the dog family from Africa and Eurasia.
Kudu An African antelope that comes in two kinds, greater and lesser.
Mongoose A small meat-eating mammal of Africa, Asia and southern Europe.
Rhino The short name of a big mammal whose full name means "nose-horned".
Safari An overland journey to see lions, elephants and other wildlife, most often in East Africa.
Savanna Grassy country dotted with trees, home to lions and giraffes.
Springbok A slender, long-legged antelope of southern Africa.
Stampede A sudden rush of a frightened herd.
Waterhole A pool where wild animals come to drink.
Wildebeest An African antelope also called the gnu.
Zebra A wild equine of Africa; each one's banded pattern is its own.

Around the Zoo 20

Aquarium A building or tank where fish and other water animals are kept.
Carnivore A meat-eater, such as a lion or a mongoose.
Conservation The work of protecting wild animals and the places where they live.
Enclosure The fenced or walled space where an animal lives.
Endangered Describes a kind of animal with so few left that it could vanish.
Exhibit A display built so that visitors can see an animal.
Herbivore A plant-eater, such as a giraffe or a gorilla.
Kangaroo A large marsupial of Australia whose family name means "large foot".
Moat A wide ditch, often filled with water, used in place of a fence.
Nocturnal Awake after dark, like an aardvark or a margay.
Nursery The place where baby animals are cared for.
Paddock A fenced field for hoofed animals.
Panda A bear of China with black patches around its eyes and ears.
Pangolin A mammal covered in scales, also called a scaly anteater.
Petting Zoo The part of a park where visitors may stroke and feed tame sheep, goats and rabbits.
Ticket What a visitor shows at the gate to get in.
Tram A small open train that carries visitors around a big park.
Wallaby A small or middle-sized relative of the kangaroo.
Yak A shaggy animal of the Tibetan Plateau, kept by people and related to cows.
Zookeeper The worker who cleans the exhibits, reports health problems and may lead tours for visitors.

How this list was compiled: 91 zoo words in six lists: cats, apes and monkeys, zoo birds, the reptile house, an African safari and the zoo itself. The fact in each animal's clue was checked on October 3, 2026 against that animal's English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0); spellings against English Wiktionary. Rhino and Hippo are short forms. Licence: own work

How it works

This zoo animal word search printable opens on 16 of 24 zoo favorites, hidden across and down only. 91 words fill 6 lists: cats, apes and monkeys, zoo birds, the reptile house, an African safari and the zoo itself.

Read the full guide

A printable safari word search

Pick African Safari under Start from a list for 18 words, from Giraffe, Zebra and Rhino to Wildebeest, Springbok and Waterhole. Big and Small Cats adds 16 more, such as Cheetah, Serval and Snow Leopard. Around the Zoo is the visit itself: Zookeeper, Enclosure, Moat, Ticket and Tram.

A free printable wild animal word search, easy enough for kindergarten

Easy Zoo holds 25 words of 3 to 5 letters, among them Lion, Emu, Kiwi, Yak and Hippo. Hard Zoo holds 32 of 8 to 12 letters, up to Komodo Dragon and Conservation.

In More options, tick Show clues, not words: "A long-legged runner with soft brown feathers" leads to Emu.
Two-word entries lose their gap in the grid: look for SNOWLEOPARD, GILAMONSTER and PETTINGZOO.

Questions and answers

Which zoo animals are in the word find?

Four lists name animals a zoo keeps: cats from Lion to Caracal, apes and monkeys from Gorilla to Siamang, birds from Flamingo to Shoebill, and reptiles from Python to Tuatara. African Safari adds grazers such as Impala, Kudu and Eland.

Is this the same list as the animal word search?

No. The animal word search has a Zoo Animals list among its lists by home, such as farm, forest, desert and ocean. This page repeats some of those animals and adds the zoo itself, from Aviary and Exhibit to Nursery and Petting Zoo.

Why are Rhino and Hippo spelled short?

They are the common short forms, and at five letters each they fit the easy list. The long forms, Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, are in the animal word search.

Can I add an animal from our own zoo trip?

Yes. The word list under the puzzle can be typed on: replace any word with an animal your class saw, and the grid is laid out again with the new word.

All 91 words

Big and Small Cats 16

Apes and Monkeys 14

Zoo Birds 13

Reptile House 10

African Safari 18

Around the Zoo 20

How it works

A printable safari word search

A free printable wild animal word search, easy enough for kindergarten

Questions and answers

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