Animals That Start With V: 16 Animals From Vampire Bat to Vulture

Vampire bat

Vampire bats are the only mammals that feed entirely on blood. The three species live in Mexico, Central America and South America, and the common vampire bat feeds mainly on cattle, horses and other livestock. A heat-sensing nose helps it find blood vessels close to the skin, and it laps blood from a tiny cut rather than sucking it. Well-fed bats often share meals with hungry roostmates.

Vampire squid

The vampire squid is a small cephalopod, up to about 30 cm (1 ft) long, that is neither a true squid nor an octopus, although octopuses are its closest relatives. It lives in dark, oxygen-poor water 600–900 m (2,000–3,000 ft) or more down. Despite its scientific name, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, “vampire squid from hell”, it eats marine snow: drifting flakes of dead plankton and other debris.

Vaquita

The vaquita is a porpoise no more than about 150 cm (4.9 ft) long, the smallest of all whales, dolphins and porpoises, found only in the northern Gulf of California in Mexico. It drowns in gillnets set illegally for a large fish called the totoaba. About 567 were counted in 1997; a 2024 survey saw only about 6 to 8, and it is Critically Endangered. Read why the vaquita is almost extinct.

Veiled chameleon

The veiled chameleon comes from the mountains and valleys of Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is named for the tall, helmet-like crest, or casque, on its head, which grows as the animal matures and helps channel dew and rain toward its mouth. Like other chameleons, it has eyes that swivel independently and a long, sticky tongue for catching insects.

Velvet worm

Velvet worms are soft, many-legged animals of damp tropical and southern forests, with about 230 described species. They are neither true worms nor insects, but a group of their own that has relatives dating back to the Cambrian period, over 500 million years ago. They hunt insects and spiders by squirting two jets of sticky slime from glands beside the mouth, which glue the prey in place.

Verreaux’s sifaka

Verreaux’s sifaka is a white lemur of the dry forests and spiny thickets of southern and western Madagascar. In the trees it leaps powerfully from trunk to trunk. On open ground it cannot walk on all fours easily, so it “dances”: it bounds sideways on its hind legs with its arms held out for balance. It is listed as Critically Endangered.

Vervet monkey

The vervet monkey is a black-faced, gray-green monkey of the savannas and woodlands of eastern and southern Africa. It is famous for its alarm calls. Vervets give acoustically distinct calls for different predators, such as leopards, eagles and snakes, and the rest of the troop responds in the right way, for example by climbing a tree after a leopard call or looking up after an eagle call.

Viceroy butterfly

The viceroy is an orange-and-black butterfly of North America that looks very much like the monarch. It is a little smaller and has a black line curving across each hindwing, which the monarch lacks. Biologists once thought the viceroy was a harmless copycat, but it also tastes bad to birds, so the two species protect each other by sharing one warning pattern. It is the state butterfly of Kentucky.

Vicuña

The vicuña is a slender wild relative of the llama that lives on the high grasslands of the Andes, at 3,200–4,800 m (10,500–15,700 ft), mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. It weighs 35–65 kg (77–143 lb) and grows extremely fine wool; the Inca allowed only royalty to wear it. Only about 6,000 were left in 1974, but protection helped numbers recover to about 350,000, and it is now listed as Least Concern.

Vinegaroon

The vinegaroon, or giant whip scorpion, is an arachnid of the southern United States and Mexico, including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. It has no venom and no stinger. Instead, it sprays a defensive mist from the base of its whip-like tail that is about 85 percent acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, which gives it its name. It hunts insects and other small animals at night.

Viper

Vipers are a family of venomous snakes, including adders, rattlesnakes and other pit vipers, found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. All have long, hollow, hinged fangs that fold back against the roof of the mouth and swing forward to strike. The common European adder is the only venomous snake in Britain and is found as far north as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia.

Virginia opossum

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial found north of Mexico, ranging from Central America across much of the United States into southern Canada. It has 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal. When badly frightened, it may “play possum”, falling limp and still as if dead, which can put off predators that prefer live prey.

Viscacha

Viscachas are large, long-tailed rodents of South America and relatives of the chinchilla. The plains viscacha of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay weighs up to 9 kg (20 lb) and lives in colonies in big burrow systems that can be used for decades. It drags branches and other objects to its burrow entrances. Mountain viscachas, which look like long-tailed rabbits, live among rocks high in the Andes.

Volcano rabbit

The volcano rabbit, or zacatuche, is one of the smallest rabbits in the world and lives only in pine forests with thick bunchgrass on the slopes of volcanoes near Mexico City, including Popocatépetl. It has short, rounded ears and runs on all fours rather than hopping. Its name zacatuche comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and means “grass rabbit”. It is listed as Endangered.

Vole

Voles are small, stocky rodents with blunt snouts, small ears and short tails, with about 155 species across the Northern Hemisphere. They are usually 8–23 cm (3–9 in) long. In many places, vole numbers boom and crash every few years, and they are a key food for owls, kestrels, foxes and weasels. The field vole is common in Europe and the meadow vole in North America.

Vulture

Vultures are large scavenging birds, with 23 living species. The 16 Old World vultures of Europe, Africa and Asia and the 7 New World vultures and condors of the Americas look alike but are not closely related. Rüppell’s vulture of Africa is the highest-flying bird known: one struck an aircraft at 11,300 m (37,000 ft) in 1973. Find out why vultures are bald.