Animal Groups
Sort animals into the right group in a free timed browser game. Mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, reptile, insect.
NatureBaby Animals
Every species names its young differently, and the words are more memorable than they look. Below: the pairs worth knowing before you start.
Choose your difficulty
Pick a level to start playing. You can switch at any time.
How to play
Read the animal, then tap the name of its baby.
Tip: your progress and best score are saved in this browser only.
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NatureWhat you are actually practicing
Every species has its own word for a young animal, and the words are far less systematic than you would guess. A horse foal and a donkey foal share a word; a lion cub and a bear cub share a word; but a wolf pup and a fox pup do not.
Learning these labels is a small vocabulary task with a large payoff. Once you have them, a nature documentary, a farm sign or a children's book stops being a guessing game.
How the game works
You are shown an adult animal and four possible names for its young. Tap the correct one. A wrong pick shows the answer immediately.
Easy uses the seven animals that appear in almost any picture book. Medium widens the pool. Hard uses the full list, including the less frequent words.
The links worth knowing
Farm animals: a horse foal, a cow calf, a sheep lamb, a goat kid, a pig piglet. A donkey foal and a camel calf follow the same pattern as their relatives.
Pets and small animals: a cat kitten, a dog puppy, a rabbit kit, a duck duckling, a hen chick.
Wild mammals: a lion cub, a tiger cub, a bear cub. A wolf pup and a fox pup, while a kangaroo joey.
Birds and amphibians: a swan cygnet, a frog tadpole.
How to get faster
Notice where the words come from. The -ling ending gives small size, so duckling and gosling share a shape. The -let ending marks something young, as in piglet. The -ey ending appears on kangaroo joey. Once you spot the endings, half the list works itself out.
A note on the exceptions
A baby swan is a cygnet, and a baby swan goose is a gosling, not a cygnet. A baby frog is a tadpole, which is a stage of life rather than a cute diminutive. And a baby fish is called a fry, which is not on this list because the word covers many small species rather than one.