Animals That Start With E

25 animals Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 25 animals that start with E, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. The best-known ones come first, then the full list in A to Z order.

With 25 animals, E is smaller but still varied. Eagle and elephant are the easy starters, and emu and elk are short names that fit neatly in crosswords.

Many E names are compounds built on another animal. The elephant shrew, elephant seal, eagle owl and electric eel all borrow a well-known word as their first part. The echidna, a spiny egg-laying mammal from Australia, is a great surprise for kids. The eft is a young newt, a handy three-letter answer for word puzzles.

Animals starting with E: 25
Best known: eagle, elephant
Longest name: electric catfish
Most are: birds

Best-known animals that start with E

The ones most people will recognise, good for school lists, quizzes and games.

eagle
elephant
elk
eel
emu
ewe
ermine
earthworm
egret
emperor penguin
echidna
eland
earwig
electric eel
eagle owl
elephant shrew

All animals that start with E

#	Name	What it is	Type
1	eagle	any of various large keen-sighted diurnal birds of prey noted for their broad wings and strong soaring flight	bird
2	eagle owl	very large owl with orange eyes and ear tufts	other
3	eagle ray	powerful free-swimming tropical ray noted for `soaring' by flapping winglike fins	fish
4	earthworm	terrestrial worm that burrows into and helps aerate soil	worm
5	earwig	any of numerous insects of the order Dermaptera having elongate bodies and slender many-jointed antennae and a pair of...	insect
6	echidna	a burrowing monotreme mammal covered with spines and having a long snout and claws for hunting ants and termites	mammal
7	eel	voracious snakelike marine or freshwater fishes with smooth slimy usually scaleless skin and having a continuous...	fish
8	eft	a newt in its terrestrial stage of development	amphibian
9	egret	any of various usually white herons having long plumes during breeding season	bird
10	eider	duck of the northern hemisphere much valued for the fine soft down of the females	bird
11	eland	either of two large African antelopes of the genus Taurotragus having short spirally twisted horns in both sexes	mammal
12	electric catfish	freshwater catfish of the Nile and tropical central Africa having an electric organ	fish
13	electric eel	eel-shaped freshwater fish of South America having electric organs in its body	fish
14	electric ray	any sluggish bottom-dwelling ray of the order Torpediniformes having a rounded body and electric organs on each side of...	fish
15	elephant	five-toed pachyderm	mammal
16	elephant bird	huge (to 9 ft.) extinct flightless bird of Madagascar	bird
17	elephant seal	either of two large northern Atlantic earless seals having snouts like trunks	mammal
18	elephant shrew	small African mammal with a long flexible snout	other
19	elk	common deer of temperate Europe and Asia	mammal
20	emperor moth	large moth of temperate forests of Eurasia having heavily scaled transparent wings	insect
21	emperor penguin	the largest penguin; an Antarctic penguin	bird
22	emu	large Australian flightless bird similar to the ostrich but smaller	bird
23	ermine	mustelid of northern hemisphere in its white winter coat	mammal
24	erne	bulky greyish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail; of Europe and Greenland	bird
25	ewe	female sheep	mammal

Mammals that start with E

elephant
elk
ewe
ermine
echidna
eland
elephant seal

Birds that start with E

eagle
emu
egret
emperor penguin
elephant bird
erne
eider

Fish that start with E

eel
electric eel
electric ray
eagle ray
electric catfish

Insects that start with E

earwig
emperor moth

Other animals that start with E

eagle owl
elephant shrew

Questions people ask

How many animals start with E?

This list has 25 animals starting with E, from well-known ones like eagle, elephant, elk to rarer kinds.

What animals start with E?

Well-known examples are eagle, elephant, elk, eel, emu, ewe, ermine, earthworm.

What mammals start with E?

elephant, elk, ewe, ermine, echidna.

What birds start with E?

eagle, emu, egret, emperor penguin, elephant bird.

What fish start with E?

eel, electric eel, electric ray, eagle ray, electric catfish.

Source: Princeton WordNet, a public dictionary database, reviewed by our editors to keep only clear, real members of the list. Meanings are short dictionary glosses.

See every letter on one page: animals A to Z