Animal Riddles for Kids with Answers

28 riddles

Animal riddles are the easiest kind for a young child, and the reason is not that animals are simple. It is that the child already has the picture. A riddle about a penguin arrives with the penguin standing in the room, so the only work left is matching the clues to it.

These 28 are ours. They are the ones for a car journey or a waiting room: nothing to set up, and every answer is something a four-year-old has seen in a book.

I sleep all day, I hunt at night, and I turn my head almost all the way round.
Show the answer
An owl
I have black and white stripes and no two of us are striped the same.
Show the answer
A zebra
I carry my house on my back and I am never in a hurry.
Show the answer
A snail
I wear a black and white suit, I cannot fly, and I love the cold.
Show the answer
A penguin
I am the tallest animal and I have the longest neck, but I have the same number of neck bones as you.
Show the answer
A giraffe
I visit flowers all day and leave something sweet behind.
Show the answer
A bee
I start life with no legs, then I grow four and lose my tail.
Show the answer
A frog
I change colour to match where I sit, and my eyes look two ways at once.
Show the answer
A chameleon
I have eight arms and three hearts.
Show the answer
An octopus
I have a pouch and I travel by jumping.
Show the answer
A kangaroo
I am grey, I am huge, and my nose can pick up a peanut.
Show the answer
An elephant
I sleep all winter and wake up very hungry.
Show the answer
A bear
I build a house out of sticks across a river without a single tool.
Show the answer
A beaver
I fly at night, I hang upside down and I am not a bird.
Show the answer
A bat
I have no bones, no legs and no eyes for seeing colour, and gardeners are very glad I exist.
Show the answer
An earthworm
I live in the sea, I breathe air, and I am the biggest animal that has ever lived.
Show the answer
A blue whale
I run faster than any other animal and I get tired after half a minute.
Show the answer
A cheetah
I have a hundred legs in my name and never exactly a hundred in real life.
Show the answer
A centipede
I spin a trap out of my own body and I am not a fisherman.
Show the answer
A spider
I was a caterpillar, then I slept in a case, and now I have wings.
Show the answer
A butterfly
I wake up the farm before anyone asks me to.
Show the answer
A rooster
I have a shell, I can pull my head inside and I may live a hundred years.
Show the answer
A tortoise
I swim, I walk and I fly, and I am not especially good at any of them.
Show the answer
A duck
I am covered in spines, I curl into a ball and I eat slugs.
Show the answer
A hedgehog
I have long ears, strong back legs, and I never say no to a carrot.
Show the answer
A rabbit
I live in a hive of thousands and I have one queen.
Show the answer
A honeybee
I am a horse with stripes on my legs only, and I live in the mountains of no country at all.
Show the answer
A zebra's cousin the okapi
I follow the ship for days and I sleep while flying.
Show the answer
An albatross

How to ask them

Animal riddles are the best ones for the game that actually teaches a child how riddles are built: pick an animal and give three clues in the wrong order on purpose. Start with the obvious one — «I say moo» — and watch how the riddle collapses. Then do it again with the obvious clue last. A seven-year-old sees the difference immediately and never forgets it. The other thing worth knowing is that these riddles work best if you allow the near-misses. A child who answers «an owl» to the bat riddle has reasoned perfectly well from what they had, and saying so out loud — «good thinking, but owls have feathers» — is worth more than the right answer given quickly.

More riddles

After the riddles, a story: illustrated bedtime stories on Marytale →

All 28 riddles on this page are written by Marytale for children aged 4 to 9. None is copied from another collection. Written by Marytale.