Animal Riddles With Answers
Updated · Best Riddles With Answers editorial team
Quick answer: This page gathers 42 animal riddles with answers for children, teachers and zoo trips. The easy riddles describe well-known farm and wild animals, the middle sets give subtler clues about how animals live, and the hard set has real animal facts, legs-and-heads puzzles and classic brain teasers. Sea creatures are left for our ocean page.
Easy Animal Riddles
I have a long trunk, two tusks and big flapping ears. What am I?
An elephant
I have the longest neck of any animal and I eat leaves from the tops of trees. What am I?
A giraffe
I look like a horse in pyjamas, with black and white stripes. What am I?
A zebra
I eat grass, I say moo, and the milk on your cereal comes from me. What am I?
A cow
I hop, I croak, and I started life as a tadpole. What am I?
A frog
I hunt at night, I say hoot, and I can turn my head almost all the way round. What am I?
An owl
I have no legs, no arms and no eyelids, and I slither along the ground. What am I?
A snake
I buzz from flower to flower, make honey, and I sting if I am scared. What am I?
A bee
I have eight legs, and I spin a sticky web to catch my dinner. What am I?
A spider
I hop on big back legs, and a baby of mine rides in my pouch. What am I?
A kangaroo
I swing from branch to branch by my arms and tail, and I love bananas. What am I?
A monkey
I cluck, I peck at seeds, and I lay an egg for your breakfast. What am I?
A hen
Trickier Animal Riddles
I have a golden mane, I roar, and I am called the king of the jungle, though I live on grassland. What am I?
A lion
I store fat in a hump on my back, and I can walk across the hot desert for days without a drink. What am I?
A camel
I am the only mammal that can truly fly, and I sleep hanging upside down. What am I?
A bat
I am a black and white bird in a smart suit, and I cannot fly, but I am a fine swimmer. What am I?
A penguin
I change colour to match my surroundings, and my two eyes can look in different directions. What am I?
A chameleon
I begin as a hungry caterpillar, wrap myself in a chrysalis and come out with wings. What am I?
A butterfly
I purr when I am happy, I have whiskers, and people say I have nine lives. What am I?
A cat
I am slow, I carry my shell, and I can live for more than a hundred years. What am I?
A tortoise
My back is covered in sharp quills, and I raise them when an enemy is near. What am I?
A porcupine
I am a colourful bird that can copy words you say. What am I?
A parrot
I knock on tree trunks with my beak, tap tap tap, looking for insects. What am I?
A woodpecker
I am the biggest bird in the world, I cannot fly, but my long legs can outrun almost any person. What am I?
An ostrich
Hard Animal Riddles
A farmer has chickens and cows. Together they have 20 heads and 56 legs. How many of each does he have?
12 chickens and 8 cows, because 12 x 2 = 24 legs, 8 x 4 = 32 legs, and 24 + 32 = 56
A dog is tied to a 3 metre rope, yet it easily reaches a bone that is 5 metres away. How?
The other end of the rope is not tied to anything, so the dog can walk freely
There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck, and a duck in the middle. How many ducks are there?
3, because they are in a line and each description fits a different duck
A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a pointed roof. Which side does the egg roll down?
Neither, because roosters do not lay eggs
A jar holds 5 spiders and 3 beetles. How many legs are there altogether?
58, because spiders have 8 legs (5 x 8 = 40) and beetles have 6 (3 x 6 = 18)
I am a furry mammal with a duck-like bill, and I lay eggs and swim in streams. What am I?
A platypus
My fingerprints look so much like yours that they could fool a detective, and I sleep up to 20 hours a day in eucalyptus trees. What am I?
A koala
I can race from standing still to about 100 kilometres an hour in only a few seconds, and I have dark tear marks down my face. What am I?
A cheetah
A group of wise owls has a name borrowed from a government assembly. What is it?
A parliament
A snail is at the bottom of a 10 metre well. Each day it climbs 3 metres, and each night it slips back 2 metres. On which day does it get out?
Day 8. After 7 days it is at 7 metres, and on day 8 it climbs 3 more to reach 10
Quick-Fire Animal Riddles
A fan of eyes on a shimmering tail. What am I?
A peacock
Small, squeaky and afraid of cats. What am I?
A mouse
Long ears, a fluffy tail and a love of carrots. What am I?
A rabbit
I gallop, I wear a saddle, and I eat hay. What am I?
A horse
Pink, curly-tailed and happy in the mud. What am I?
A pig
I quack, I waddle and I float on the pond. What am I?
A duck
Woolly coat, baa baa. What am I?
A sheep
I bury nuts in the autumn and sometimes forget where. What am I?
A squirrel
How to Use These Animal Riddles
Animal riddles work well on the way to a farm or zoo. Read the riddle before you reach the enclosure and see if children can spot the creature. The easy set suits ages three and up, and the quick-fire set works as a short game.
For older children, use the hard riddles to practise logic. Have them draw the legs puzzle on paper, and discuss why the rooster and rope riddles depend on one detail that changes everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good animal riddle for kids?
Try 'I have a long trunk, two tusks and big flapping ears.' The answer is an elephant. Riddles built on one obvious feature, such as a trunk, a pouch or stripes, work best for young children.
Which mammal lays eggs?
The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs. They still feed their young with milk, which is why they count as mammals even though they hatch from eggs.
Are these animal riddles suitable for a classroom?
Yes. The riddles are clean, accurate and sorted by difficulty, so you can use the easy set for early years and the hard set for older pupils who enjoy facts and logic puzzles.
Why are there no sea creatures here?
Sea animals such as whales, sharks and starfish appear on our ocean riddles page, so this page focuses on farm, wild and backyard animals. That keeps every riddle on both pages different.
