Animals That Start With H: 25 Animals From Hamster to Hyena

Hagfish

Hagfish are eel-shaped, jawless fish that live on the seafloor in cool oceans around the world, often at great depths. When a predator grabs one, it releases huge amounts of slime from glands along its body, which can clog the attacker’s gills. Hagfish feed on worms and scavenge on dead animals that sink to the bottom.

Hammerhead shark

Hammerheads are named for their wide, flattened head, called a cephalofoil, which spreads out their eyes and electrical sensors and helps them find prey such as stingrays buried in sand. The great hammerhead, the largest species, typically measures 3.5–4.6 m (11–15 ft) and lives in warm seas worldwide. It is Critically Endangered, mainly because of overfishing; read why hammerheads have hammer-shaped heads.

Hamster

Hamsters are small rodents with stretchy cheek pouches that they stuff with seeds and grain to carry back to their burrows. The golden (Syrian) hamster lives wild only in a small area of northern Syria and southern Turkey and is listed as Endangered. The European hamster, once common in farmland from France to Russia, is now Critically Endangered.

Hare

Hares look like large rabbits but have longer ears and legs, and their young, called leverets, are born fully furred with their eyes open. The European hare can run at up to about 70 km/h (43 mph). The spring “boxing” matches seen in fields are usually a female fighting off a male that is pursuing her too closely.

Harbor seal

The harbor seal, known as the common seal in Britain, lives along the coasts of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, including the shores of Europe and North America. Adults reach about 1.85 m (6 ft) and up to 168 kg (370 lb). Pups are so well developed at birth that they can swim and dive within hours.

Harpy eagle

The harpy eagle hunts sloths and monkeys in the rainforest canopy of Central and South America. Females are much larger than males and typically weigh 6–9 kg (13–20 lb), and they have the largest talons of any living eagle, with rear claws averaging about 12 cm (4.8 in). The species is listed as Vulnerable, mainly because of forest loss.

Hawksbill sea turtle

The hawksbill is named for its narrow, pointed beak, which it uses to pull sponges out of cracks in tropical coral reefs around the world. Its beautifully patterned shell was the main source of “tortoiseshell” for combs and jewelry, a trade that helped drive the species to Critically Endangered status. International trade in hawksbill shell is now banned.

Hedgehog

Hedgehogs are small, spiny mammals of Europe, Asia and Africa; no hedgehogs are native to the Americas. An adult European hedgehog carries up to about 6,000 spines, which are stiff, hollow hairs, and it rolls into a tight ball when threatened. In 2024 the IUCN moved it from Least Concern to Near Threatened because of steep declines; see are there hedgehogs in America?

Hellbender

The hellbender is North America’s largest salamander, measuring 30–74 cm (12–29 in) long. It lives in clean, fast-flowing rocky streams in the eastern United States and breathes mainly through the loose, wrinkled folds of skin along its sides. Pollution and silt in rivers have caused declines, and it is listed as Vulnerable.

Hermit crab

Hermit crabs have a soft, curled abdomen, so they protect it by living inside empty snail shells and must move into bigger ones as they grow. When a new shell turns up, some gather in a line ordered by size and swap shells one after another in a “vacancy chain”. Most species live in the sea, but land hermit crabs live on tropical coasts.

Heron

Herons are long-legged wading birds that stand motionless in shallow water before seizing fish with a lightning-fast strike of the bill. The great blue heron is the largest heron in North America, and the gray heron is the familiar species in Europe. Unlike cranes, herons fly with the neck folded back in an S shape.

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus is one of the heaviest land animals, with adult bulls averaging around 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). It spends the day in the rivers and lakes of sub-Saharan Africa and comes out at night to graze, eating around 40 kg (88 lb) of grass. Hippos cannot really swim; they walk or bounce along the bottom instead. The species is listed as Vulnerable.

Hoatzin

The hoatzin is a crested bird of the swamps and riverside forests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America. It eats mostly leaves and breaks them down by fermentation in its large crop, a little like a cow, which gives it a manure-like smell and the nickname “stinkbird”. Its chicks have two claws on each wing that help them clamber through branches.

Honey badger

The honey badger, or ratel, lives across Africa, southwestern Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Its thick, loose skin lets it twist around and bite back even when grabbed, and it eats almost anything, from insects and bee larvae to snakes. The popular story that honeyguide birds lead honey badgers to bees’ nests has never been confirmed by researchers.

Honeybee

The western honeybee, native to Europe, Africa and western Asia, is now kept around the world for honey and crop pollination. A strong colony can hold tens of thousands of workers in summer, all daughters of a single queen. Foragers share the location of flowers through the “waggle dance”, a discovery that earned Karl von Frisch a share of the 1973 Nobel Prize.

Hornbill

Hornbills are birds of tropical Africa and Asia with huge, curved bills, often topped by a helmet-like structure called a casque. In most species the female seals herself inside a tree hole with mud and droppings, leaving only a narrow slit through which the male passes food. The great hornbill of India and Southeast Asia is listed as Vulnerable.

Hornet

Hornets are the largest social wasps. The European hornet, native to Europe and Asia and introduced to eastern North America, has workers around 25 mm (1 in) long and queens up to 35 mm (1.4 in). Despite their fearsome reputation, European hornets are usually not aggressive away from their nest, and they hunt many other insects.

Horse

The horse has lived alongside people for thousands of years, and genetic studies suggest modern domestic horses trace back to animals tamed on the steppes of western Eurasia about 4,200 years ago. Horses can doze standing up by locking their legs but must lie down for deep sleep. Przewalski’s horse of Mongolia, once extinct in the wild, has been reintroduced and is listed as Endangered.

Horseshoe crab

Despite the name, horseshoe crabs are not true crabs; they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions, and their group goes back more than 400 million years. Each spring, Atlantic horseshoe crabs gather in huge numbers to spawn on beaches such as those of Delaware Bay. Their blue, copper-based blood is used to test medicines and medical devices for bacterial contamination.

Howler monkey

Howler monkeys live in the forests of Central and South America and are among the loudest land animals. An enlarged bone in the throat amplifies their roaring calls, which can be heard several kilometers away. Howlers spend much of the day resting, an energy-saving habit that suits a diet made up largely of leaves.

Hummingbird

Hummingbirds live only in the Americas, where about 375 species range from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. They can hover and even fly backward, with wing beats ranging from about 12 per second in the largest species to more than 80 in the smallest. The bee hummingbird of Cuba, about 5 cm (2 in) long and under 2 g, is the smallest bird in the world; read can hummingbirds fly backwards?

Humpback whale

The humpback whale is a baleen whale found in oceans worldwide, usually 14–15 m (46–49 ft) long, with very long flippers and a habit of leaping clear of the water. Males sing long, complex songs that change over time and spread from one population to another. Most humpbacks migrate thousands of kilometers between cold feeding waters and warm breeding grounds.

Huntsman spider

Huntsman spiders are fast, flattened spiders found in warm regions worldwide and are especially common in Australia, where they often wander into houses. The giant huntsman spider, described from caves in Laos in 2001, is the largest spider in the world by leg span, at up to about 30 cm (12 in). Huntsmen do not build webs to catch prey; they chase it down.

Hyena

There are four hyena species: the spotted, striped and brown hyenas, plus the termite-eating aardwolf. Although they look like dogs, hyenas are more closely related to cats and mongooses. The spotted hyena of sub-Saharan Africa lives in clans led by females and kills most of its own food; see do hyenas hunt or scavenge?

Hyrax

The rock hyrax looks like a large guinea pig, but its closest living relatives are elephants and manatees. It lives in colonies among rocky outcrops in Africa and the Middle East and spends a lot of time sunbathing, because it is not very good at controlling its body temperature. Its feet have moist, rubbery pads that grip steep rock like suction cups.