Spanish Phrases: Names of animals in Spanish: mammals

This page looks at the Spanish words for various common animals. You may also be interested in the separate section on pets in Spanish, which also includes various phrases for describing animals and pets. On this page, we focus specifically on mammals; following pages will look at other types of animal:

 fish and reptiles in Spanish
 birds and poultry in Spanish
 insects and rodents in Spanish

Mammals

The general term for mammals in Spanish is mamíferos. Here are the Spanish words for some common mammals:

una ballena	-	a whale
un bisonte	-	a bison
un buey	-	an ox
un búfalo	-	a buffalo
un caballo	-	a horse
una cabra	-	a goat
un camello	-	a (two-humped) camel*
un carnero	-	a ram
una cebra	-	a zebra
un cerdo	-	a pig
un delfín	-	a dolphin
un dromedario	-	a (one-humped) camel, dromedary*
un elefante	-	an elephant
una foca	-	a seal
un gato	-	a cat
una gata	-	a (female) cat
un hipopótamo	-	a hippopotamus
una jirafa	-	a giraffe
un jaguar	-	a jaguar
un león	-	a lion
un leopardo	-	a leopard
un lince	-	a lynx
un lobo	-	a wolf
una mangosta	-	a mongoose
una mofeta	-	a skunk
un oso	-	a bear
un oso blanco/polar	-	a polar bear
una oveja	-	a sheep
un ovejo	-	a ram
un perro	-	a dog
una perra	-	a (female) dog
un puma	-	a puma
un rinoceronte	-	a rhino(ceros)
un tejón	-	a badger
un tigre	-	a tiger
una vaca	-	a cow
un visón	-	a mink
un zorrillo	-	a skunk

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^* In English, there are two species of animal commonly referred to as a camel. Strictly speaking, zoologists use the term dromedary to refer to the one-humped variety. This distinction appears to be a bit clearer in everyday usage in Spanish: many non-specialists will use dromedario in everyday usage.

Primates

Here are some common primates (also referred to in Spanish as primates):

un babuino	-	a baboon
un chango	-	a monkey (Mexico)
un chimpancé	-	a chimp(anzee)
una gorila	-	a gorilla
un mono	-	a monkey
un orangután	-	an orangutan

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See also

 fish and reptiles in Spanish
 birds in Spanish
 insects and rodents in Spanish