Wild Animals in French • Useful List 🐅🦉🐒
When learning French, it’s fun and useful to expand your vocabulary with the names of wild animals.
You’ll see these words in books, zoos, safaris, documentaries, and even everyday conversations.
This guide gives you a useful list of wild animals in French, with English translations and example sentences to help you practice.
🦁 Big Wild Animals
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Un lion – lion
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Un tigre – tiger
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Un léopard – leopard
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Un guépard – cheetah
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Un éléphant – elephant
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Un rhinocéros – rhinoceros
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Un hippopotame – hippopotamus
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Un ours – bear
👉 Example: Le lion est le roi des animaux.
(The lion is the king of animals.)
🐵 Forest & Jungle Animals
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Un singe – monkey
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Un gorille – gorilla
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Un chimpanzé – chimpanzee
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Un orang-outan – orangutan
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Un paresseux – sloth
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Un serpent – snake
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Un iguane – iguana
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Un perroquet – parrot
👉 Example: Les singes vivent dans la jungle.
(Monkeys live in the jungle.)
🐺 Wild Animals in Europe
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Un loup – wolf
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Un renard – fox
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Un sanglier – wild boar
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Un cerf – deer
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Une biche – doe
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Un chevreuil – roe deer
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Un hibou – owl
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Un aigle – eagle
👉 Example: Il y a des loups dans certaines régions de France.
(There are wolves in some regions of France.)
🐪 Desert & Savanna Animals
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Un chameau – camel
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Un dromadaire – dromedary (one-humped camel)
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Une girafe – giraffe
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Un zèbre – zebra
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Un buffle – buffalo
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Un antilope – antelope
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Un autruche – ostrich
👉 Example: Les girafes ont un long cou.
(Giraffes have a long neck.)
🐧 Polar & Mountain Animals
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Un pingouin – auk (often confused with “penguin”)
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Un manchot – penguin (the Antarctic bird)
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Un phoque – seal
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Un morse – walrus
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Un renne – reindeer
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Un yack – yak
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Une marmotte – marmot
👉 Example: Les manchots vivent en Antarctique.
(Penguins live in Antarctica.)
💬 Useful Phrases
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As-tu déjà vu un tigre au zoo ? – Have you ever seen a tiger at the zoo?
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Le renard est un animal sauvage. – The fox is a wild animal.
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Il y a beaucoup de cerfs dans cette forêt. – There are many deer in this forest.
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Les girafes vivent dans la savane africaine. – Giraffes live in the African savanna.
🎯 Practice Activity
👉 Write 3–4 sentences in French using different wild animal words. For example:
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Le lion vit en Afrique.
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J’ai vu un ours en montagne.
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Le hibou chasse la nuit.
✅ Conclusion
By learning this useful list of wild animals in French, you’ll be able to talk about nature, wildlife, and your experiences in zoos or safaris. These French animal words are practical for beginners, travelers, and anyone passionate about animals.
If you liked this, explore more of our French vocabulary lists about animals and nature to keep building your knowledge step by step!