How To Talk About Animals In Indonesian

Indonesia is filled with thriving wildlife. Across its over 17,000 islands, there are tigers, rhinos, elephants and even dragons. Well, Komodo dragons, but it’s still very cool. If you’re planning on visiting, it’s definitely worth learning the names for animals in Indonesian, because it would be a shame to miss out on anything due to the language barrier. And even if you’re not planning to explore the fauna of the islands in person, it’s always fun to combine your language learning with pictures and videos of animals. It’s a great excuse to take a break from learning Indonesian’s grammatical structures.

To get you started, we collected some of the most basic vocab for animals in Indonesian. Click the play button next to any of the words to hear how they’re pronounced by a native speaker.

General Animal Vocab

pet — binatang piaraan

farm animal — hewan ternak

wild animal — hewan liar

sea creature — hewan laut

fur — bulu

veterinarian — dokter hewan

Names of Animals In Indonesian

dog — anjing

cat — kucing

fish — ikan

mouse/rat — tikus

hamster — hamster

rabbit — kelinci

guinea pig — marmut

chicken — ayam

cow — sapi

pig — babi

sheep — domba

goat — kambing

donkey — keledai

horse — kuda

elephant — gajah

camel — onta

bird — burung

duck — bebek

goose — itik

pigeon — burung merpati

penguin — pinguin

parrot — burung nuri

owl — burung hantu

eagle — elang

dolphin — lumba-lumba

octopus — gurita

blue whale — paus biru

jellyfish — ubur-ubur

starfish — bintang laut

shark — ikan hiu

sea turtle — penyu

bear — beruang

wolf — serigala

crocodile — buaya

snake — ular

kangaroo — kanguru

frog — kodok

squirrel — tupai

giraffe — jerapah

hippopotamus — kuda nil

sloth — binatang pemalas

deer — rusa