Animals That Start With V

17 animals Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 17 animals that start with V, 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.

V has 17 animals, a mix of the scary and the surprising. Vulture, viper and vampire bat suit spooky stories, and the vole is a small field rodent that young children can picture.

The velociraptor adds a dinosaur, and the vaquita is a very small porpoise from the Gulf of California. The vixen is simply a female fox, a good vocabulary word. The velvet ant is actually a wasp, and the velvet worm is a soft-bodied creature that is neither a true worm nor an insect.

Animals starting with V: 17
Best known: viper, vulture
Longest name: vermilion flycatcher
Most are: mammals

Best-known animals that start with V

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

viper
vulture
viceroy
vixen
vole
vampire bat
velociraptor
vaquita
vermilion flycatcher
vervet monkey
vicuna

All animals that start with V

#	Name	What it is	Type
1	vampire bat	any of various tropical American bats of the family Desmodontidae that bite mammals and birds to feed on their blood	mammal
2	vaquita	very rare small porpoise of the Gulf of California	mammal
3	varying hare	large large-footed North American hare; white in winter	mammal
4	velociraptor	small active carnivore that probably fed on protoceratops	reptile
5	velvet ant	a solitary wasp of the family Mutillidae	insect
6	velvet worm	any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous animals common in tropical forests having characteristics of both...	other
7	vermilion flycatcher	small bright red bird that catches insects in flight	other
8	vervet monkey	African monkey with a black face and grey fur	mammal
9	viceroy	showy American butterfly resembling the monarch but smaller	insect
10	vicuna	wild relative of the llama from the Andes mountains	mammal
11	vine snake	slender arboreal snake found from southern Arizona to Bolivia	reptile
12	vinegar eel	minute eelworm that feeds on organisms that cause fermentation in e.g. vinegar	worm
13	vinegar fly	flies whose larvae feed on pickles and imperfectly sealed preserves	insect
14	viper	venomous Old World snakes characterized by hollow venom-conducting fangs in the upper jaw	reptile
15	vixen	a female fox	mammal
16	vole	any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout...	mammal
17	vulture	any of various large diurnal birds of prey having naked heads and weak claws and feeding chiefly on carrion	bird

Mammals that start with V

vixen
vole
vampire bat
vaquita
vervet monkey
vicuna
varying hare

Reptiles that start with V

viper
velociraptor
vine snake

Insects that start with V

viceroy
velvet ant
vinegar fly

Other animals that start with V

vermilion flycatcher
velvet worm

Questions people ask

How many animals start with V?

This list has 17 animals starting with V, from well-known ones like viper, vulture, viceroy to rarer kinds.

What animals start with V?

Well-known examples are viper, vulture, viceroy, vixen, vole, vampire bat, velociraptor, vaquita.

What mammals start with V?

vixen, vole, vampire bat, vaquita, vervet monkey.

What reptiles start with V?

viper, velociraptor, vine snake.

What insects start with V?

viceroy, velvet ant, vinegar fly.

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