Name That Animal Quiz
Every animal starts as an extreme close-up. Name it early for three points, or zoom out and settle for less. Ten animals a round.
Most animal quizzes hand you the whole picture. This one starts with a patch of fur, a scale, an eye or the curve of a fin, because that is usually how you meet wildlife in real life: half-hidden, moving and gone in a second. Name that animal from the close-up and you score three points. Zoom out once for two, or see the whole creature for one.
After every answer you get the full photo, one fact worth remembering and a link to read more. Choose a round below and see how sharp your eye really is.
Choose a round
Which animal is this?
Your ten animals
How the close-up quiz works
How biologists actually identify animals
Field identification rarely starts with a perfect view. More often you get a tail disappearing into grass, a flash of colour through leaves or a silhouette against the sky, and you work from there. Experienced naturalists lean on four things: overall shape, patterns and markings, behaviour, and where the animal is. A little egret and a great egret share the same white outline, but size and bill colour separate them in a second.
Even with training, you get it wrong. On the NSW north coast recently I spotted three large white birds in a tree in town and called them white ibis without a second thought. A friend corrected me: they were royal spoonbills, and once you look at the bill there is no mistaking them. One feature was the whole answer, which is exactly what this quiz trains.
A tip for the close-ups. Look at texture before colour. Scales, fur, feathers, bare skin and armour plating are easy to tell apart even when the colour is unfamiliar, and they narrow the options faster than anything else.
Every animal in the quiz
32 animals across ocean and land rounds. Each one links to its full story on Wildlife Nomads.
Ocean (12)
Bottlenose dolphin
Spinner dolphin
Octopus
Humpback whale
Gray whale
Blue whale
Sperm whale
Orca
Narwhal
Beluga
Bowhead whale
Fin whale
Land and sky (20)
Grey wolf
African lion
Three-toed sloth
Owl
Golden poison frog
Asian elephant
Honey badger
Monarch butterfly
Wildebeest
Reindeer
Arctic tern
Giraffe
Gorilla
Saltwater crocodile
Coyote
Laughing kookaburra
Axolotl
Honey bee
Tardigrade
Black ant
More animal games and tools
Finished a round? These use the same animals in different ways, and each one takes a couple of minutes.
Name That DinosaurThirty dinosaurs, three levels of difficulty
Animal Memory GameMatch the pairs, learn a fact with each one
What Animal Are You?Fifteen questions, nine possible animals
Animal Size ComparisonFrom a tardigrade to a blue whale, at true scale
Whale Size ComparisonFourteen whales beside a diver
Animal Migration MapsSix of the longest journeys on Earth
Questions people ask
Is the name that animal quiz free?
Yes, completely free, with no sign-up. It works on phones, tablets and computers, and your best score for each round is remembered on your own device.
How is the quiz scored?
Each animal is worth up to three points. Name it from the first close-up for three, after one zoom for two, or from the full picture for one. A wrong answer scores nothing, so the maximum for a round of ten is thirty.
Is it suitable for kids?
Yes. Younger players can zoom straight out and still learn a fact about every animal, while older kids and adults can chase the three-point close-ups. The land and sky round tends to be easier than the ocean one, where several whales look alike up close.
