What is the largest animal that starts with Y?

The wild yak is the largest Y animal. Adults stand 1.6–2.05 m (5.2–6.7 ft) at the shoulder and weigh 500–1,200 kg (1,100–2,650 lb). It lives on the high Tibetan Plateau and is listed as Vulnerable.

What sea animals start with Y?

Sea animals beginning with Y include the yellowfin tuna, yellow tang, yellow-bellied sea snake and yeti crab. The yeti crab was discovered in 2005 at hydrothermal vents about 2,200 m (7,200 ft) deep in the South Pacific.

What birds start with Y?

Birds beginning with Y include the yellowhammer, yellow warbler and yellow-eyed penguin, along with the yellowthroats and yellowlegs of North America. The yellowhammer's song is often written as 'a little bit of bread and no cheese'.

Which animals starting with Y are endangered?

The yellow-eyed penguin of New Zealand is listed as Endangered, and the wild yak is Vulnerable. The yellow-footed rock-wallaby of Australia is listed as Near Threatened.

Why do so many animal names start with yellow?

Very few everyday English animal words begin with Y, so most Y names are descriptive ones made with 'yellow', such as yellowjacket and yellowfin tuna. The few others, like yak and yapok, were borrowed from other languages or place names.

Animals That Start With Y: Yak, Yellowjacket and More

Yabby

The common yabby is a freshwater crayfish of southeastern Australia, especially the inland Murray-Darling Basin. Yabbies are usually 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long and come in colors from blue-black to brown. They live in creeks, dams and swamps that often dry out, and they can survive dry spells for several years by lying dormant in deep burrows in the mud. Introduced yabbies are invasive in Western Australia and Tasmania.

Yak

Yaks are long-haired wild and domestic cattle of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. Domestic yaks have been kept for thousands of years in Tibet and Mongolia for milk, wool, meat and carrying loads. The wild yak is far bigger, standing 1.6–2.05 m (5.2–6.7 ft) at the shoulder and weighing 500–1,200 kg (1,100–2,650 lb). It lives on treeless uplands at 3,000–5,500 m (9,800–18,000 ft) and is listed as Vulnerable.

Yapok

The yapok, or water opossum, lives along freshwater streams and lakes from Mexico through Central and South America to Argentina. It is the most aquatic living marsupial, swimming with webbed hind feet. It is also the only living marsupial in which both sexes have a pouch. The female’s pouch closes with a ring of muscle, keeping the babies dry even when she dives.

Yellow anaconda

The yellow anaconda, also called the Paraguayan anaconda, is a large, non-venomous constrictor of the Paraguay River basin, from the Pantanal wetlands of Bolivia, Paraguay and western Brazil to northeastern Argentina and northern Uruguay. It is yellowish with dark blotches and is one of the largest snakes in the world, though smaller than its close relative, the green anaconda.

Yellow-bellied marmot

The yellow-bellied marmot is a large ground squirrel of rocky mountain meadows in southwestern Canada and the western United States, often above 2,000 m (6,500 ft). Adults weigh 1.6–5.2 kg (3.5–11.5 lb) and live in colonies of up to 20, giving shrill whistles when danger appears. Like its relative the groundhog, it is a true hibernator, sleeping for about eight months from September. It is easy to spot in places such as Yellowstone.

Yellow-bellied sea snake

The yellow-bellied sea snake has a black back, a bright yellow belly and a flattened, paddle-shaped tail. It is one of the most widely distributed snakes in the world, living in tropical waters across the Indian and Pacific oceans, east to Costa Rica, southern California and northern Peru, but not in the Atlantic. It spends its whole life at sea, drifting along surface slicks. Its venom is extremely potent, so a snake washed up on a beach should never be touched; anyone bitten needs emergency medical help immediately.

Yellow-eyed penguin

The yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, lives only in New Zealand, breeding along the southeastern coast of the South Island, on Stewart Island and on the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell islands. Adults weigh about 5–5.5 kg (11–12 lb) and have pale yellow eyes and a yellow band around the head. It is one of the rarest penguins, listed as Endangered, and on the Otago Peninsula numbers have dropped by about 75 percent since the mid-1990s.

Yellowfin tuna

The yellowfin tuna is a fast, streamlined fish of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide, named for its bright yellow fins and side stripe. It can reach about 2.4 m (7.9 ft) and 200 kg (440 lb). The heaviest caught under game fishing rules weighed 200.94 kg (443 lb), off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in 2024. It is listed as Least Concern.

Yellow-footed rock-wallaby

The yellow-footed rock-wallaby lives on rocky ranges in western New South Wales, eastern South Australia and isolated parts of Queensland. It is one of the most colorful kangaroo relatives, with bright yellow-orange legs, a white cheek stripe and a long tail ringed in orange and brown, which earned it the old name ring-tailed rock-wallaby. Adults weigh 6–11 kg (13–24 lb), and the species is listed as Near Threatened.

Yellowhammer

The yellowhammer is a bunting of farmland, hedgerows and heaths across Europe and western Asia. Males have a bright yellow head and underparts, and their song is traditionally written as “a little bit of bread and no cheese”. Its song has influenced composers including Beethoven and Messiaen. Settlers introduced yellowhammers to New Zealand in 1862, and they soon spread across the main islands.

Yellowjacket

Yellowjacket is the North American name for predatory social wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Most are black and yellow, and they build paper nests in the ground, in walls or in trees. The black-and-white bald-faced hornet is, despite its name, a yellowjacket too. In Britain, the common wasp is the same kind of insect. In most species only the young queens survive the winter.

Yellow mongoose

The yellow mongoose is a small, sandy-yellow mongoose of the open country and semi-desert scrub of southern Africa, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Angola. It lives in colonies in permanent burrow systems, and it often shares a warren with Cape ground squirrels or meerkats, helping to dig new tunnels. It is sometimes called the red meerkat.

Yellow tang

The yellow tang is a bright yellow surgeonfish of shallow Pacific reefs, especially around Hawaii, where it lives from 2 to 46 m (6.6 to 150 ft) deep. It grazes on algae with a small, pointed snout. At night its yellow color fades slightly, and a brownish patch with a white band appears on its side, which may help it hide while it rests among the coral. It is one of the most popular marine aquarium fish.

Yellow warbler

The yellow warbler is a small, egg-yolk-yellow songbird that breeds across most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to Mexico, in willow thickets, wetland edges and gardens. Males have rusty streaks on the breast. Its bright song is often written as “sweet sweet sweet, I’m so sweet”. In autumn it migrates to Central America and northern South America.

Yeti crab

The yeti crab, Kiwa hirsuta, is a white, nearly blind crustacean about 15 cm (6 in) long that was discovered in 2005 on hydrothermal vents 2,200 m (7,200 ft) deep, about 1,500 km (930 mi) south of Easter Island. Its legs and claws are covered in silky, blond hair-like bristles that carry colonies of bacteria. Studies suggest that bacteria like these are the main food of yeti crabs.

Why so many Y animals are yellow

Few everyday English animal words begin with Y, so most Y animals carry descriptive names built with “yellow”, from the yellowhammer to the yellowfin tuna. The others are mostly borrowed. “Yak” comes from the Tibetan word g.yag, which in Tibetan refers only to the male, and “yapok” may come from the Oyapock River in French Guiana. For more animals, see animals that start with X.