Game modes
Animal games built into the animal wheel
Pick a game mode before you spin, and every result from the random animal generator arrives with a challenge. Just spin, the default, shows the class and habitat with no challenge.
Draw it
The popup reads: “Draw it: sketch a giraffe so the others can guess it. No letters or numbers.”
Act it out
The popup reads: “Act it out: move like an emperor penguin with no talking until someone guesses it.”
Name 3 facts
The popup asks for 3 facts and gives the class and habitat as a starter, so nobody begins from nothing.
Random game
Each spin picks drawing, acting or facts at random, so players can’t prepare.
Running a drawing or charades round
- Keep the answer secret. The player who spins hides the screen from the others, or one host handles the phone and whispers each animal.
- Add a countdown. Choose 30, 60 or 90 seconds under the game mode. It begins once the result is closed and chimes at the end.
- Skip repeats. Press Remove in the popup so the same animal can't come back in the next round.
- Make teams first. The team generator splits a class or a party into fair sides, and the random name picker chooses who plays next.
Quick start
How to get a random animal
Want a random animal right now? Press Spin. The filters next to the random animal generator shape the list when you want something narrower.
Choose classes
Every class starts switched on. Press one, such as Birds, to take it off the wheel or put it back.
Pick habitats
Land, Fresh water and Ocean work the same way and combine with classes. Leave only Mammals and Ocean on for the 10 sea mammals.
Wild or kept
Choose All, Wild, or Pets & farm for the 19 animals people keep, from dogs to goldfish.
Spin
Use the Spin button or the Space key. The result names the class and habitat, or sets a game challenge.
Pick animals one by one opens a searchable checklist for single animals. Reset filters brings all 158 back, and the wheel remembers your last filter and game mode in this browser.
What you'll get
What the random animal generator lands on
A mammal more than a third of the time. Mammals make up 62 of the 158 animals, and every animal has the same 1 in 158 chance, about 0.63%.
- 62%Land animals98 of 158, such as ants, lions and zebras
- 23.4%Ocean animals37, such as orcas, crabs and whale sharks
- 14.6%Fresh water23, such as axolotls, beavers and swans
- Mammals (62)39.2%
- Birds (25)15.8%
- Fish (20)12.7%
- Other invertebrates (16)10.1%
- Reptiles (14)8.9%
- Insects (13)8.2%
- Amphibians (8)5.1%
Chance that one spin of all 158 animals lands in each class. Bars are scaled to the largest class.
Your browser's crypto.getRandomValues picks the animal before the wheel turns, and the Random game mode uses the same source to choose the challenge. With only the 14 reptiles on, each has a 1 in 14 chance, about 7.14%. The wheel fairness test lets you check the odds yourself over 10,000 spins.
Class × habitat
Every random animal by class and habitat
Each animal on the random animal generator has 1 class and 1 main habitat, so every filter adds or removes a fixed group. Mammals are the biggest class, with 62 animals, and land is the biggest habitat, with 98.
| Class | Land | Fresh water | Ocean | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mammals | 47 | 5 | 10 | 62 |
| Birds | 19 | 3 | 3 | 25 |
| Reptiles | 9 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| Amphibians | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Fish | 0 | 7 | 13 | 20 |
| Insects | 13 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Other invertebrates | 5 | 1 | 10 | 16 |
| All animals | 98 | 23 | 37 | 158 |
How the habitats are decided
- Habitat means where the animal lives and feeds for most of its life in the wild.
- Land covers forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains and towns. Pets and farm animals count as land animals, except the 2 pet fish.
- Fresh water covers animals that live in or beside rivers, lakes or wetlands and spend much of their time in the water, such as beavers, hippos and alligators.
- Ocean covers animals that live and feed in the sea, on its coasts or on sea ice. Polar bears count here because they hunt seals on the sea ice.
- Split habitats are left off on purpose. Salmon, gulls, flamingos and manatees don't fit one box. Type any of them in the Entries box to add them.
Name 3 facts
Animals that aren’t what they seem
Some results start an argument before anyone names a fact. The wheel's class for each animal settles it, and these are the ones players most often guess wrong.
- Whales, dolphins and the orca are mammals. They breathe air and feed their young milk, so the wheel files them with the 62 mammals.
- The bat is a mammal too, even though it flies.
- Sharks, rays and the seahorse are fish, and so are the electric eel and the moray eel.
- The starfish and the sea urchin are not fish. They are echinoderms, one of the “other invertebrates”.
- Coral is an animal, a cnidarian like the jellyfish.
- The tarantula and the scorpion are not insects. The popup names them as arachnids.
- The axolotl and the hellbender are amphibians, not lizards or fish.
“Other invertebrates” are animals without a backbone that are not insects. The popup names their group: mollusk, crustacean, cnidarian, echinoderm, arachnid or annelid.
- OrcaName 3 facts about the orca. Starter: it is a mammal that lives in the ocean.
- StarfishName 3 facts about the starfish. Starter: it is an invertebrate (an echinoderm) that lives in the ocean.
- AxolotlName 3 facts about the axolotl. Starter: it is an amphibian that lives in fresh water.
A to Z
Animal names from A to Z
The 158 names on the random animal generator cover 21 letters of the alphabet. No animal on the wheel starts with Q, U, V, X and Y, and S leads with 22.
- A: 8 animals
- Albatross
- Alligator
- Alpaca
- Anaconda
- Anglerfish
- Ant
- Armadillo
- Axolotl
- B: 11 animals
- Bat
- Bearded dragon
- Beaver
- Betta fish
- Bison
- Blue jay
- Blue whale
- Brown bear
- Budgerigar
- Bullfrog
- Bumblebee
- C: 19 animals
- Camel
- Capybara
- Cardinal
- Cat
- Chameleon
- Channel catfish
- Cheetah
- Chicken
- Chimpanzee
- Chipmunk
- Clownfish
- Cockroach
- Coral
- Cow
- Crab
- Crayfish
- Cricket
- Crocodile
- Crow
- D: 6 animals
- Deer
- Dog
- Dolphin
- Donkey
- Dove
- Duck
- E: 5 animals
- Earthworm
- Electric eel
- Elephant
- Emperor penguin
- Emu
- F: 3 animals
- Fire salamander
- Firefly
- Flying fish
- G: 12 animals
- Garden snail
- Gecko
- Giant panda
- Giraffe
- Goat
- Golden eagle
- Goldfish
- Gorilla
- Grasshopper
- Gray wolf
- Great white shark
- Guinea pig
- H: 11 animals
- Hammerhead shark
- Hamster
- Hedgehog
- Hellbender
- Heron
- Hippopotamus
- Honeybee
- Horse
- Housefly
- Hummingbird
- Humpback whale
- I: 1 animal
- Iguana
- J: 2 animals
- Jaguar
- Jellyfish
- K: 5 animals
- Kangaroo
- King cobra
- Kiwi
- Koala
- Komodo dragon
- L: 7 animals
- Ladybug
- Largemouth bass
- Lemur
- Leopard
- Lion
- Llama
- Lobster
- M: 7 animals
- Macaw
- Manta ray
- Meerkat
- Monarch butterfly
- Moose
- Moray eel
- Mouse
- N: 1 animal
- Narwhal
- O: 7 animals
- Octopus
- Opossum
- Orangutan
- Orca
- Ostrich
- Owl
- Oyster
- P: 11 animals
- Peacock
- Peregrine falcon
- Pig
- Piranha
- Platypus
- Poison dart frog
- Polar bear
- Praying mantis
- Pufferfish
- Puffin
- Python
- R: 8 animals
- Rabbit
- Raccoon
- Rainbow trout
- Rattlesnake
- Red fox
- Rhinoceros
- River otter
- Robin
- S: 22 animals
- Scorpion
- Sea lion
- Sea otter
- Sea turtle
- Sea urchin
- Seahorse
- Seal
- Sheep
- Shrimp
- Skunk
- Sloth
- Slug
- Snapping turtle
- Spotted salamander
- Squid
- Squirrel
- Stag beetle
- Starfish
- Stick insect
- Stingray
- Swan
- Swordfish
- T: 8 animals
- Tarantula
- Tiger
- Toad
- Tortoise
- Toucan
- Tree frog
- Tuna
- Turkey
- W: 3 animals
- Walrus
- Whale shark
- Woodpecker
- Z: 1 animal
- Zebra
For an alphabet round, spin the letter wheel and name an animal that starts with the result. This list is the answer key, and the gaps make good bonus rounds: a quail, a vulture or a yak all count.
Full list
All 158 animals on the random animal wheel
The wheel holds 158 animals: 62 mammals, 25 birds, 14 reptiles, 8 amphibians, 20 fish, 13 insects and 16 other invertebrates. The 19 pets and farm animals are alpaca, betta fish, budgerigar, camel, cat, chicken, cow, dog, donkey, goat, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, horse, llama, pig, rabbit, sheep and turkey. Some, such as rabbits and budgerigars, live in the wild too.
| Class | Animals |
|---|---|
| Mammals (62) | Alpaca, Armadillo, Bat, Beaver, Bison, Blue whale, Brown bear, Camel, Capybara, Cat, Cheetah, Chimpanzee, Chipmunk, Cow, Deer, Dog, Dolphin, Donkey, Elephant, Giant panda, Giraffe, Goat, Gorilla, Gray wolf, Guinea pig, Hamster, Hedgehog, Hippopotamus, Horse, Humpback whale, Jaguar, Kangaroo, Koala, Lemur, Leopard, Lion, Llama, Meerkat, Moose, Mouse, Narwhal, Opossum, Orangutan, Orca, Pig, Platypus, Polar bear, Rabbit, Raccoon, Red fox, Rhinoceros, River otter, Sea lion, Sea otter, Seal, Sheep, Skunk, Sloth, Squirrel, Tiger, Walrus, Zebra |
| Birds (25) | Albatross, Blue jay, Budgerigar, Cardinal, Chicken, Crow, Dove, Duck, Emperor penguin, Emu, Golden eagle, Heron, Hummingbird, Kiwi, Macaw, Ostrich, Owl, Peacock, Peregrine falcon, Puffin, Robin, Swan, Toucan, Turkey, Woodpecker |
| Reptiles (14) | Alligator, Anaconda, Bearded dragon, Chameleon, Crocodile, Gecko, Iguana, King cobra, Komodo dragon, Python, Rattlesnake, Sea turtle, Snapping turtle, Tortoise |
| Amphibians (8) | Axolotl, Bullfrog, Fire salamander, Hellbender, Poison dart frog, Spotted salamander, Toad, Tree frog |
| Fish (20) | Anglerfish, Betta fish, Channel catfish, Clownfish, Electric eel, Flying fish, Goldfish, Great white shark, Hammerhead shark, Largemouth bass, Manta ray, Moray eel, Piranha, Pufferfish, Rainbow trout, Seahorse, Stingray, Swordfish, Tuna, Whale shark |
| Insects (13) | Ant, Bumblebee, Cockroach, Cricket, Firefly, Grasshopper, Honeybee, Housefly, Ladybug, Monarch butterfly, Praying mantis, Stag beetle, Stick insect |
| Other invertebrates (16) | Coral, Crab, Crayfish, Earthworm, Garden snail, Jellyfish, Lobster, Octopus, Oyster, Scorpion, Sea urchin, Shrimp, Slug, Squid, Starfish, Tarantula |
Dinosaurs, made-up animals and breeds aren't on the list, which holds living animals only. Type a T. rex, a unicorn or a golden retriever into the entries list to add one.
Emoji
Why some animals show no emoji
82 of the 158 animals show an emoji, and the other 76 show as names only. Most of those, such as the cheetah, the puffin and the starfish, have no emoji in the Unicode standard.
Left as a name
The orca gained an emoji in Emoji 17.0, but the wheel shows it as a name because older devices can’t draw it yet.
Newer emoji
The moose, donkey and jellyfish arrived in Emoji 15.0 and can show as an empty box on older systems.
Names only
Untick Show emoji to use plain names. The wheel keeps your filters, weights and colors when emoji switch off or on.
Emoji look different on each phone and computer, because each system draws its own pictures. For a wheel made of emoji alone, with story and charades modes, try the random emoji generator. For drawing ideas beyond animals, the drawing prompt wheel mixes subjects, styles and twists.
FAQ
Random animal generator FAQ
How many animals are on the random animal generator?
158, in 7 classes. You can add more by typing them in the Entries box.
Can I spin only ocean animals?
Yes. Press Land and Fresh water to switch them off, which leaves the 37 ocean animals.
Can I spin only farm animals or pets?
Yes. Choose Pets & farm under Wild or kept to spin the 19 kept animals, from dogs and goats to goldfish.
Is a whale a fish or a mammal?
A whale is a mammal. Whales breathe air and feed their young milk, so the wheel lists the blue whale, humpback whale and orca as mammals.
Can I avoid getting the same animal again?
Yes. Hit Remove when the result pops up, or let Customize remove every winner automatically.
What does the popup say about each animal?
Its class, its habitat and whether people keep it. A dog, for example, reads “Mammal · lives on land · pet or farm animal”.
Does the wheel include dinosaurs or made-up animals?
No. The list holds living animals only. Add a dinosaur or a unicorn as a new entry and it spins like any other.
Last updated · Written and tested by Melissa T. Brown