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Animal Randomizer

Animal Randomizer

Random animal generator

One animal at a time, with its photo. Select Next animal for another, and nothing repeats until you have seen all 448.

One random animal, with its photo

Your random animalExample. Select Next animal to draw your own.

Next

Animal charades that work for any age

Rules, timings by age band, what to do about animals nobody can act out, and a ready round of 12.

Read the guide

Your album

0 of 448 filled in. A slot never fills twice.

Dog and cat breeds have generators of their own. You can draw a random dog breed from a separate, sourced catalog of names, or use the random cat breed generator, with photos, for the 45 breeds CFA recognizes.

How teachers use it

All classroom guides

An animal randomizer built for a whole class

A batch of random animals, no duplicates
Ask for 25 animals for 25 children and no two get the same one. Later batches skip everything already shown. When the group runs out the draw stops and waits, rather than quietly starting the list again.
Copy or download the random animal list
Copy the names, download a plain .txt file, or print the batch as a worksheet. Everything keeps the order shown on screen.
See all 448 animals it picks from
448 animals, a stated version and a written scope. Nothing here claims to cover every animal on Earth. Read all 448 animals.

Random animals by group

Narrow the draw to one group for random birds, fish or mammals only. Between 46 and 90 in each, kept within twice the smallest so no group crowds out another. 443 of the 448 have a photograph; the rest show an illustration of their group.

How to use the random animal generator

  1. Select Next animal for one random animal with its photo. The spacebar does the same thing.

  2. For a whole class, open Batch, enter how many animals you want, from 1 to 50, then select Generate.

  3. Narrow it to one group if you want, such as Birds or Fish. Each group keeps its own colour everywhere on the page.

  4. Switch to With photos to draw only from the 443 animals that have one.

  5. Select Copy, Download or Print worksheet.

Worked example: a teacher needs one animal per child for a drawing task in a class of 18. Open Batch, enter 18, leave the group filter on All 448, keep no-repeats on, then select Generate and Print worksheet.

For one animal at a time with the class watching, the random animal generator wheel does the same draw one spin at a time, on its own page.

Limitations

  • Selection is uniform across the catalog, which is not the same as sampling real biodiversity. A blue whale and a garden snail are equally likely here.
  • The scientific name on the one-animal card belongs to the animal in the photo. For a broad name such as catfish, that is one species of many.
  • Names are everyday English common names, not species identifications. The six group labels are the categories used to sort animals in school, not six formal groups in biology, and they were checked over the catalog as a whole against Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
  • The six drawings are one per group, not one per animal. They say which group a record belongs to and nothing more about it.
  • No-repeats lasts while the page stays open. Reloading starts it again, because your draws are not saved on your device.
  • 443 of the 448 animals have a photograph, and every one carries its creator and licence.

Quick answers

What is Animal Randomizer?

A random animal generator that shows one animal at a time with its photo, or draws a whole batch with no duplicates, and does not repeat an animal until all 448 in its catalog have been drawn. You can also draw on reels, on a wheel, as teams or as a guessing card.

How many random animals can I draw at once?

Up to 50 in one batch, with no duplicates inside it. You can copy the batch, download it as plain text or print it as a worksheet.

Which animals does it draw from?

A stated catalog of 448 animals in six groups: mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and invertebrate. You can filter the draw to one group, and every name is listed on the methodology page.

Published . Last updated .