Animals That Start with N: From Naked Mole-Rats to Northern Snake-Necked Turtles
October 24, 2026
Animals that start with N include a rodent with a maximum lifespan exceeding 37 years, a crocodile that ancient Egyptians worshipped, and a game bird whose whistled name still drifts across Southern pastures. The group is more varied than most letters suggest. It spans blind-looking burrowers, big-eyed primates, and reptiles from three continents.
This list covers seven of them: three mammals, three reptiles, and one bird. Each entry covers where the animal lives, when science first took notice, and how it connects to the United States, whether through a backyard, a zoo, or a field guide. For a wider roster, the A-Z Animals directory counts 65 animals beginning with N.
| Animal | Type | Main Range | Most Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naked mole-rat | Mammal | East Africa | Underground, all hours |
| Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon | Reptile | KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | Daytime |
| Nile crocodile | Reptile | Sub-Saharan Africa | Dusk and night |
| Northern bobwhite | Bird | Eastern and central United States | Daytime |
| Northern greater galago | Mammal | East Africa | Night |
| Northern short-tailed shrew | Mammal | Eastern North America | Day and night |
| Northern snake-necked turtle | Reptile | Southwestern Australia | Daytime, in water |
1. Naked Mole-Rat
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) looks like a wrinkled, nearly hairless sausage with oversized front teeth. Its biology is the reason it fills so many research papers. A review in Annual Reviews notes that these animals do not show increased mortality with age and rarely develop cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.
German naturalist Eduard Rüppell described the species in 1842 from East African specimens. More than a century later, zoologist Jennifer Jarvis reported in 1981 that naked mole-rats live in eusocial colonies, a setup more familiar from bees and ants than from mammals. In the wild, colonies hold up to 300 individuals in tunnel systems beneath eastern African savannas, according to a Cancer Science review. Each colony usually has just one breeding female and one to three breeding males.
Researchers keep returning to these animals for a few reasons:
- They live around nine times longer than mice of comparable body size, according to a ScienceDirect skin study.
- They live in low-oxygen underground colonies and tolerate hypoxia well.
- They show unusual resistance to tumors, which makes them a comparison species for cancer research.
Resistance is not the same as immunity, though. A bioRxiv preprint described four confirmed cases of neoplasia in 72 necropsies from a single captive colony.
American visitors can see the animals at several zoos, including the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, where colonies are often displayed in connected tubes and chambers. If you enjoy oddball mammals, the animals that start with P list has more, including pangolins and platypuses.
2. Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleon
The Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion thamnobates) is a small, leaf-hugging lizard from the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its name carries some history. Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama named the coast “Natal” on Christmas Day in 1497, and the name later passed to the British colony and then the province.
Most Americans know chameleons from the pet trade, where veiled and panther chameleons dominate. This species is a lesser-known cousin tied to a single corner of South Africa. It lives in forest edges, thickets, and shrubby gardens, and it moves in the slow, swaying way that helps chameleons look like windblown leaves.
Dwarf chameleons in this genus give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. That trait suits cool, highland climates, because a mother can keep her developing young warm by basking. Much of the Midlands is now farmland and timber plantation, so the species depends on the patches of native vegetation that remain.
Key Insight: Color change in chameleons is mostly about communication and temperature, not blending into a background. Males flash brighter patterns to rivals and mates, then go dull when stressed or cold.
Other reptiles with outsized personalities appear in the animals that start with D list, including the dragons.
3. Nile Crocodile
The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is Africa’s largest crocodile, with adult males commonly reaching roughly 11 to 16 feet. It lives in rivers, lakes, and marshes across sub-Saharan Africa. Few animals have such a long record in human culture.
Ancient Egyptians worshipped the crocodile god Sobek and mummified crocodiles in large numbers. In the fifth century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the animal’s habits, including a famous story of birds picking food from its open jaws. The crocodile is also one of the crocodilians most often involved in fatal attacks on people, which explains why it earned respect and fear in equal measure.
For US readers, the Nile crocodile is mostly a zoo animal, but not entirely. Biologists have documented Nile crocodiles in South Florida, most likely escaped or released captives. The native crocodilian there is the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus), a shyer species that lives in coastal mangroves and is distinct from the more familiar American alligator.
Important Note: The Nile crocodile is not native to the United States. Anyone who sees an unusually large crocodilian in South Florida should keep a safe distance and report the sighting to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
If apex predators are your interest, the animals that start with T list covers tigers and other top hunters.
4. Northern Bobwhite
The northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) is a plump, ground-dwelling quail and the only quail native to the eastern United States. Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus described it in 1758, and the species name points to Virginia, where early colonists knew it. Its common name comes from the male’s whistled call, which sounds like “bob-white.”
The bird became a fixture of rural Southern life. Quail hunting shaped land use across the Southeast, and Georgia has named the bobwhite its state game bird. Coveys, the tight winter groups that huddle in a circle with tails together, were once a routine sight along field edges.
Today the bird is better known for decline than abundance. Bobwhites need open grass, scattered shrubs, and bare ground, and the loss of fencerows, prescribed fire, and mixed small farms has reduced that habitat across much of its range. Landowners and state wildlife agencies now run habitat programs that bring native grasses and controlled burns back to working land.
Pro Tip: Spring and early summer mornings are the best time to hear a male bobwhite. Listen near field edges, open pine stands, and brushy pastures, and keep your distance so nesting birds are not flushed.
To look for one, try this approach:
- Choose a site with native grass, scattered shrubs, and bare soil, such as a wildlife management area in the Southeast or Great Plains.
- Arrive near sunrise and stand quietly for ten to fifteen minutes.
- Listen for the two-note whistle, then scan the base of nearby shrubs for movement.
- Walk slowly along the field edge rather than through the middle of it.
More feathered neighbors are listed in the bird names that start with K guide.
5. Northern Greater Galago
The northern greater galago (Otolemur garnettii), also called Garnett’s greater galago, is a nocturnal primate with enormous ears and round, light-gathering eyes. Its other common name, bushbaby, comes from a cry that resembles a crying infant. It lives in forests and woodlands of East Africa, including parts of Kenya and Tanzania.
Galagos belong to the strepsirrhine primates, the same broad group that includes lemurs and lorises. They spend nights leaping between branches, using their long hind legs like springs. Their ears fold and flex as they move, which probably protects them from twigs while they listen for flying insects.
The diet is mixed. Northern greater galagos eat fruit, tree gum, and insects, and they often wash their hands and feet in their own urine, a habit that helps with grip and with leaving scent marks. In US zoos, they usually appear in dimly lit nocturnal houses where visitors can watch them wake up as the lights change.
They are not pets. Many states restrict private primate ownership, and the animals need specialized diets, space, and social contact. Other night-active animals, such as opossums and owls, are covered in the animals that start with O list.
6. Northern Short-Tailed Shrew
The northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) is one of the most common small mammals in the eastern United States and southern Canada, yet most people never see one. It is a stocky, mole-like animal with velvety gray fur, tiny eyes, and a tail shorter than its body. Naturalist Thomas Say described it in the 1820s.
Shrews are not rodents. They belong to a different order alongside moles, and they live fast. A northern short-tailed shrew eats close to its own body weight in food, mostly earthworms, insects, and snails, and it will take on prey as large as a mouse. It forages in leaf litter and tunnels in forests, fields, and even suburban gardens, day and night.
Key Insight: This shrew is one of the few venomous mammals. Its saliva contains toxins that can paralyze prey such as snails, and the shrew may store them alive for later. A bite to a person can be painful but is rarely serious.
If your cat leaves a small gray “mouse” on the porch with the body untouched, it was often a shrew. Cats frequently catch shrews and then refuse to eat them, likely because of their strong scent glands. Larger, bolder hunters, such as weasels and wolverines, appear in the animals that start with W list.
7. Northern Snake-Necked Turtle
The northern snake-necked turtle (Chelodina oblonga), also called the oblong turtle, lives in swamps, lakes, and slow rivers of southwestern Western Australia, including the wetlands around Perth. Its neck is nearly as long as its shell. Its scientific naming has been tangled over the years, with the species often confused with a close relative.
Snake-necked turtles belong to a family of side-necked turtles that fold their heads sideways under the shell edge instead of pulling them straight back. That is the opposite of the box turtles and painted turtles Americans know. No side-necked turtles are native to the United States, since the family lives in the Southern Hemisphere.
The long neck works like a spring-loaded tube. The turtle waits motionless, then strikes sideways and gulps in a rush of water that pulls in fish, tadpoles, and aquatic insects. During the dry Australian summer, when shallow wetlands vanish, it can bury itself in mud or leaf litter and wait for rain.
Drained wetlands and urban growth around Perth are the main pressures on the species. That story echoes American turtle conservation, where roadside mortality and wetland loss have long been the main concerns. Readers who want to keep going through the alphabet can browse the animals that start with S list for more turtles and snakes, or the animals that start with B list for a very different mix of species.
From a hairless burrower to a side-necked swimmer, these seven animals show how much variety a single letter can hold. The animals that start with R list is the next stop for readers moving on to a new set of species.