Indonesia is filled with thriving wildlife. Across its over 17,000 islands, there are tigers, rhinos, elephants and even dragons. Well, Komodo dragons, but it’s still very cool. If you’re planning on visiting, it’s definitely worth learning the names for animals in Indonesian, because it would be a shame to miss out on anything due to the language barrier. And even if you’re not planning to explore the fauna of the islands in person, it’s always fun to combine your language learning with pictures and videos of animals. It’s a great excuse to take a break from learning Indonesian’s grammatical structures.
To get you started, we collected some of the most basic vocab for animals in Indonesian. Click the play button next to any of the words to hear how they’re pronounced by a native speaker.
General Animal Vocab
pet — binatang piaraan
farm animal — hewan ternak
wild animal — hewan liar
sea creature — hewan laut
fur — bulu
veterinarian — dokter hewan
Names of Animals In Indonesian
dog — anjing
cat — kucing
fish — ikan
mouse/rat — tikus
hamster — hamster
rabbit — kelinci
guinea pig — marmut
chicken — ayam
cow — sapi
pig — babi
sheep — domba
goat — kambing
donkey — keledai
horse — kuda
elephant — gajah
camel — onta
bird — burung
duck — bebek
goose — itik
pigeon — burung merpati
penguin — pinguin
parrot — burung nuri
owl — burung hantu
eagle — elang
dolphin — lumba-lumba
octopus — gurita
blue whale — paus biru
jellyfish — ubur-ubur
starfish — bintang laut
shark — ikan hiu
sea turtle — penyu
bear — beruang
wolf — serigala
crocodile — buaya
snake — ular
kangaroo — kanguru
frog — kodok
squirrel — tupai
giraffe — jerapah
hippopotamus — kuda nil
sloth — binatang pemalas
deer — rusa