The loudest animal in the world is the sperm whale, whose echolocation clicks have been measured at up to about 230 decibels underwater — the

The longest-living animal ever reliably dated was an ocean quahog clam named Ming, which was 507 years old when scientists counted its shell rings in

The strongest animal in the world, relative to its size, is a dung beetle: the horned dung beetle Onthophagus taurus can pull about 1,141 times

The biggest animal in the world — and the largest animal known to have ever lived — is the blue whale. The longest individuals reliably

The fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of more than 200 miles per hour — up to about 240

Z is the final letter of the animal alphabet, and one animal owns it: the zebra. But Z has more to offer than stripes —

Y is a quieter letter of the animal alphabet, but it has real star power: a shaggy ox that thrives higher than most airplanes cruise

X is the hardest letter in the entire animal alphabet — and this page will be honest with you about it. Only a handful of

W is a wild letter. It owns the largest animal that has ever lived (the blue whale), one of the smallest carnivores on Earth (the

V is a small but dramatic letter. It brings us the only mammals that live entirely on blood, the rarest marine mammal on Earth, a

U is a genuinely tricky letter — there are far fewer U animals than S or T animals, and some lists pad themselves out with

T stands for tiger — the biggest cat on Earth — but that is only the beginning. This letter also delivers a screaming marsupial from

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),

R is a letter full of familiar faces: rabbits in the backyard, raccoons at the trash can, robins on the lawn — and then some

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

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

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

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

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

L belongs to the big cats and their look-alikes — lions, leopards, lynx, and a seal named after one of them — plus lemurs, llamas,

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

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

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

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