Animals That Start With J: 20 Animals From Jackal to Jellyfish

Jabiru

The jabiru is a huge stork of wetlands from Mexico to Argentina and the tallest flying bird in Central and South America, measuring 120–140 cm (47–55 in) from bill to tail, with a wingspan of 2.3–2.8 m (7.5–9.2 ft). Its bare black head and neck end in a bright red band. The name comes from the Tupi–Guarani languages and means “swollen neck”.

Jacana

Jacanas are tropical wetland birds with extremely long toes and claws that spread their weight, letting them walk across floating lily pads. In many species the usual roles are reversed: the larger female mates with several males, and each male incubates the eggs and raises the chicks alone, sometimes carrying them tucked under his wings.

Jackal

Jackals are medium-sized wild dogs of Africa, Asia and southeastern Europe. The golden jackal is spreading from southeastern Europe into central Europe, with animals now recorded as far as France and the Baltic region, often in areas with few or no wolves. In Africa, the black-backed jackal lives in pairs that often stay together for many years.

Jackdaw

The jackdaw is a small, sociable crow of Europe, western Asia and North Africa, easily recognized by its pale silvery eyes and gray nape. It nests in holes, including chimneys and church towers, and pairs usually stay together for life. The scientist Konrad Lorenz made jackdaws famous with his studies of their social life.

Jackrabbit

Despite the name, jackrabbits are hares, not rabbits, and their young are born furred with their eyes open. The five species live in the open plains and deserts of western and central North America. Their huge ears help them shed heat, and they can run at around 65 km/h (40 mph) and leap up to 3 m (10 ft) at a time.

Jaguar

The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas, with big males reaching up to about 158 kg (348 lb). Its bite is powerful enough to crack turtle shells, and it often kills by biting through the skull of its prey. It lives mainly in Central and South America and is Near Threatened; read are there jaguars in the US?

Jaguarundi

The jaguarundi is a small wild cat with a long, low body, short legs and a small, flattened head that make it look more like a weasel or otter than a cat. Its coat is plain gray or reddish brown, and unlike most cats it is often active by day. It ranges from Mexico to Argentina but has probably disappeared from Texas, where the last confirmed record dates from 1986.

Japanese giant salamander

The Japanese giant salamander lives in cool mountain streams in Japan and can grow to 1.5 m (5 ft) long and 25 kg (55 lb), making it the third-largest salamander in the world. It absorbs much of its oxygen through its wrinkled, folded skin and is mostly active at night. Japan has protected it as a Special Natural Monument since 1951, and it is listed as Vulnerable.

Japanese macaque

Also called the snow monkey, the Japanese macaque lives farther north than any other primate except humans. In the mountains around Jigokudani, some troops bathe in volcanic hot springs during the snowy winters. On the island of Koshima, a young female began washing sweet potatoes in water in the 1950s, a habit that spread through her troop.

Japanese spider crab

The Japanese spider crab has the longest legs of any known arthropod, with a span of up to 3.7 m (12 ft) from claw to claw. It can weigh up to 19 kg (42 lb) and lives on the seafloor around Japan, usually at depths of 50–600 m (160–1,970 ft).

Javan rhinoceros

The Javan rhino is one of the rarest large mammals on Earth, with fewer than 100 animals left, all in Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java, Indonesia. It once ranged across much of Southeast Asia; the last one in Vietnam was killed by poachers in 2010. No Javan rhinos are kept in zoos, and the species is Critically Endangered.

Javelina

The javelina, or collared peccary, lives in deserts, scrub and forests from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Argentina. It looks like a wild pig, but peccaries belong to a separate family found only in the Americas. Herds keep together using a strong-smelling scent gland on the back, and in the desert they eat prickly pear cactus, spines and all.

Jay

Jays are colorful, intelligent members of the crow family. The blue jay of eastern North America has no blue pigment; its color comes from the way light scatters in its feathers, and it often imitates the calls of hawks. The Eurasian jay buries thousands of acorns each autumn, and the ones it never retrieves help oak woods spread.

Jellyfish

Jellyfish are soft-bodied sea animals made up of about 95% water, with no brain, heart or bones. They sting prey with tentacles armed with tiny harpoon-like cells, and some, such as box jellyfish, are dangerous to people. Their ancestors were drifting through the oceans more than 500 million years ago; read do jellyfish have brains?

Jerboa

Jerboas are small hopping rodents of the deserts of North Africa and Asia. With very long hind legs and a long tufted tail for balance, they bound along like tiny kangaroos. Active at night, they escape owls and foxes with sudden zigzag leaps and sharp changes of direction rather than long, steady hops.

Jewel beetle

Jewel beetles are a family of about 15,500 species famous for their shiny metallic colors, and their wing cases have long been used as decoration in India, Thailand and Japan. Some species can sense the infrared heat of forest fires and fly toward them to lay eggs in freshly burned trees. In Australia, males of one species were seen trying to mate with brown beer bottles, a finding that later won an Ig Nobel Prize.

John Dory

The John Dory is a thin, flat-bodied fish of the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific. A large dark spot on each side is said in legend to be the thumbprint of Saint Peter. It stalks small fish head-on, so its narrow body is hard to see, then shoots out its extendable jaws to suck them in.

Jumping spider

Jumping spiders make up the largest spider family, with around 7,000 described species. They have four pairs of eyes, and the big front pair gives them some of the sharpest vision of any spider. Instead of using leg muscles alone, they leap by suddenly raising the fluid pressure in their legs; see how well jumping spiders can see.

Junco

The dark-eyed junco is a gray-and-white sparrow found across North America, often nicknamed the “snowbird” because it appears in yards and at bird feeders across much of the United States in winter. It flashes white outer tail feathers as it flies off. Several regional forms, such as the slate-colored and Oregon juncos, look quite different from one another.

Junglefowl

The red junglefowl, a colorful wild bird of the forests of South and Southeast Asia, is the main wild ancestor of the domestic chicken. Wild roosters have red combs, golden neck feathers and a crow much like a farmyard rooster’s. Its descendant, the chicken, is now the most numerous bird on Earth, with more than 26 billion alive at any one time.