S may be the busiest letter in the animal kingdom. It covers the slowest mammal (the sloth), some of the fastest swimmers (sharks and seals), the smelliest defense system (the skunk), and an entire squad of squirrels. It even includes
R is a letter full of familiar faces: rabbits in the backyard, raccoons at the trash can, robins on the lawn — and then some heavyweights, like the rhinoceros, and some true rarities, like the red wolf, one of the
Let’s be honest: Q is one of the hardest letters in the animal alphabet. There simply are not many animals whose common names begin with Q. But the ones that do exist are wonderful — a marsupial that looks like
P might be the most impressive letter in the whole animal alphabet. It gives us the panda and the penguin, the polar bear and the platypus, the porcupine and the pangolin — plus the pudu, a deer so small it
The letter O is packed with animal celebrities: owls that can turn their heads three-quarters of the way around, octopuses with three hearts, orcas that rule the ocean, and the opossum — North America’s only marsupial. There is even a
The letter N introduces some of the strangest and most wonderful animals on Earth. There is a whale with a unicorn horn, a little Australian marsupial that eats thousands of termites a day, an armadillo that always has identical quadruplets,
M is a monster letter for animal lovers: the largest deer on Earth, a fox on stilts, a bat that emerges by the millions, and the most colorful face in the mammal world. Here are more than 20 real animals
L belongs to the big cats and their look-alikes — lions, leopards, lynx, and a seal named after one of them — plus lemurs, llamas, and a bird that can imitate a chainsaw. Here are 17 real animals that start
K is the letter of champions: the world’s largest lizard, a parrot that forgot how to fly, a ghost-white bear, and a deer small enough to hide in a Florida backyard. Here are 19 real animals that start with K,
J may be the alphabet’s trickiest animal letter, but it hides some greats: the strongest-jawed big cat, a hot-spring-soaking monkey, and the rarest rhino on Earth. Here are 15 real animals that start with J, with fun facts and links
I is a short letter with an outsized cast: cliff-climbing goats, a singing lemur, India’s armored rhino, and an extinct giant with the biggest antlers that ever grew. Here are 16 real animals that start with I, with fun facts
H is a letter of surprises: a bat with a moose-like face, a ‘laughing’ hunter smarter than some apes, and the river giant that may be Africa’s most dangerous large animal. Here are 18 real animals that start with H,
G is for gentle giants and expert diggers — the largest primate, the tallest animal, and a squad of ground-dwellers that spend half their lives underground. Here are 19 real animals that start with G, with fun facts and links
F is for fliers, gliders, and sprinters — plus a deer that helped decorate castle parks for a thousand years. Here are 16 real animals that start with F, with fun facts and links to the ones we cover in
E gives the animal alphabet its heavyweights and its featherweight: elephants, elk, and elephant seals share this letter with a shrew lighter than a coin. Here are 17 real animals that start with E, with fun facts and links to
D is the letter of the deer family, man’s best friend, and a few creatures stranger than fiction — including a wolf from the Ice Age that really existed. Here are 17 real animals that start with D, with fun
C might be the most crowded letter in the animal alphabet — cats big and small, deer with fangs, the fastest sprinter on Earth, and the world’s largest rodent. Here are 20 real animals that start with C, with fun
B brings the giants and the tinies: the biggest animal that has ever lived shares this letter with a bat lighter than a penny. Here are more than 20 real animals that start with B, with fun facts and links
The animal alphabet starts strong: the letter A gives us armored diggers, spotted deer, snow-white wolves, and a salamander that never grows up. Here are more than 20 real animals that start with A, from backyard favorites to some of
Every color an animal wears comes from just two toolkits: pigments and structure. Pigments are colored chemicals — melanin makes blacks, browns, and golds, while carotenoids from food make many reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks. Structural color is different: microscopic
Gray is what you get when melanin is spread thin — a mix of dark pigment and pale, unpigmented bands along each hair. Many “gray” mammals, like wolves and squirrels, are actually wearing hairs banded in black, white, and brown
Brown may be the most common coat color on Earth, and there is a simple reason: dirt, bark, and dead leaves are brown. An animal the color of its background is harder to see, whether it is hiding from predators
Pink animals are real, and they get their color in three very different ways. Some, like flamingos and spoonbills, turn pink from carotenoid pigments in the shrimp and algae they eat. Others, like the pink fairy armadillo and the Amazon
Golden fur and feathers sit right between yellow and brown, and nature makes that color two ways at once. In mammals, a warm form of melanin called pheomelanin paints coats reddish-gold. In birds and frogs, carotenoid pigments from food add