Fun With Chinese Animal Names

an interactive post

source

by Joe Váradi

Many familiar animal varieties, like those of the Chinese zodiac (8 out of 12 of which are pictured above), are designated by a single Chinese character. But it’s with the less common animal names that the Chinese language gets really creative.

See if you can guess these, based on the literal translations into English. The solutions are given further down below. These are ordered from the intuitive to the progressively less obvious.

This will be fun, trust me.

1. 斑馬 — “striped horse”
2. 長頸鹿 — “long neck deer”
3. 食蟻獸 — “eat ant beast”
4. 龍蝦 — “dragon shrimp”
5. 海獅 — “sea lion” (don’t overthink this one)
6. 海象 — “sea elephant”
7. 海豹 — “sea leopard”
8. 海豚 — “sea piglet”
9. 松鼠 — “pine rat”
10. 栗鼠 — “chestnut rat”
11. 袋鼠 — “pouch rat”
12. 壁虎 — “wall tiger”
13. 臭鼬 — “stinky weasel”
14. 熊貓 — “bear cat”
15. 無尾熊 — “bear with no tail”
16. 貓頭鷹 — “cat-headed eagle”
17. 鬣狗 — “dog with horse’s mane”
18. 企鵝 — “goose on tiptoes” (my personal favorite)

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ok let’s see how you did … scroll down for the answers

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1. 斑馬 — “striped horse” → ZEBRA
2. 長頸鹿 — “long neck deer” → GIRAFFE
3. 食蟻獸 — “eat ant beast” → ANTEATER
4. 龍蝦 — “dragon shrimp” → LOBSTER
5. 海獅 — “sea lion” → SEA LION
6. 海象 — “sea elephant” → WALRUS
7. 海豹 — “sea leopard” → SEAL
8. 海豚 — “sea piglet” → DOLPHIN
9. 松鼠 — “pine rat” → SQUIRREL
10. 栗鼠 — “chestnut rat” → CHIPMUNK
11. 袋鼠 — “pouch rat” → KANGAROO
12. 壁虎 — “wall tiger” → GECKO, HOUSE LIZARD
13. 臭鼬 — “stinky weasel” → SKUNK
14. 熊貓 — “bear cat” → PANDA
15. 無尾熊 — “bear with no tail” → KOALA
16. 貓頭鷹 — “cat-headed eagle” → OWL
17. 鬣狗 — “dog with horse’s mane” → HYENA
18. 企鵝 — “goose on tiptoes” → PENGUIN

Gianina Buda, best of luck with your new publication! I am so glad that a home on Medium exists now for aficionados of language learning.