This page includes all animals that start with the letter Y that we plan to cover on Fact Animal. As we publish new content, each of these animals will be linked to their dedicated profile fact pages.
From Yak to Yeti Crab, read extraordinary facts about animals beginning with the letter Y.
Y
Yabby
Yak
Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle
Yapok
Yellow-Backed Duiker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-Eyed Penguin
Yellowfin Tuna
Yellowhammer
Yellowjacket
Yeti Crab
Please see our Animal A-Z list for animals that start with different letters.
Animal Names That Start With Y
Read on for an overview of each of the animals listed above that begin with the letter Y.
Yabby
Yabbies are funny little freshwater crayfish from Australia. They’re popular in aquaculture because they’re cute and are known to burrow, which is what helps them survive the dry seasons in the wild.
Fun Fact: Yabbie hunting is a popular family activity in Australia, and it’s done by attaching a piece of meat to some string and gently luring it out. No need for a hook! They’ll hold on tight enough to be pulled from the mud.
Yak
Yaks are huge bovids found in the Himalayan region. There are wild and domestic versions, and they’re one of the oldest domestic cows still around. Yaks provide milk, meat, and wool for the local mountain communities.
Fun Fact: Yaks have unique adaptations for high-altitude living, including a large lung capacity and a thick, insulated coat that helps them survive in harsh mountain environments.
Yapok
The Yapok, also known as the water opossum, is a marsupial found in Central and South America. It is semi-aquatic and has webbed hind feet, making it an excellent swimmer. Yapoks are known to hunt in water for small prey.
Fun Fact: Yapoks have an unusual pouch that opens towards the tail, allowing them to carry their young while swimming without getting wet.
Yellow-Backed Duiker
The Yellow-Backed Duiker is a very small, forest-dwelling antelope found in Central and West Africa. Its name comes from the distinctive yellow colouration on its back.
Fun Fact: Yellow-Backed Duikers communicate a lot through scent, and one of the stinkiest of scent glands is situated right under their eyes.
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are woodpeckers from North America. They drill holes in trees to feed on sap and insects. These small woodpeckers have a yellowish hue on their bellies.
Fun Fact: Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers create sap wells on trees for feeding that also to attract insects, which can make them a pest. But they can even kill trees themselves by removing bark around the trunk’s entirety, a process known as “girdling”.
Yellow-Eyed Penguin
The Yellow-Eyed Penguin is a rare and endangered species native to New Zealand. It is characterized by its distinctive yellow eye band and bright pink beak and feet.
Fun Fact: These are the largest breeding penguins in New Zealand, and are thought to live up to 20 years old. They’re the fifth heaviest penguin species.
Yellowfin Tuna
Yellowfin Tuna is a species of tuna found in warm oceanic waters. They are highly migratory and are popular targets for commercial and sport fishing.
Fun Fact: Yellowfin Tuna are immense, powerful predators, and some of the fastest animals in the ocean. While smaller than the bluefin, they’re much larger than the supermarket tins would suggest, reaching up to 180 kg (400 lb) in weight.
Yellowhammer
The Yellowhammer is a passerine bird found in Europe and Asia. It gets its name from the vibrant yellow colouration on its head and underparts, although much of the rest of the bird is pretty yellow, too.
Fun Fact: The Yellowhammer’s song is said to sound like the phrase “A little bit of bread and no cheese”, but this says more about the imaginations of ornithologists than the bird itself.
Yellowjacket
Yellowjackets are any number of Vespula paper wasps; predatory wasps named after their distinctive yellow and black markings. They are incredible social insects that build intricate paper nests.
Fun Fact: Yellowjackets play a beneficial role by preying on pest insects, but they can be a nuisance, especially in late summer when their colonies are at their largest, as they will aggressively defend their nests.
Yeti Crab
The Yeti Crab is a deep-sea crustacean discovered near hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean. It is named after the mythical Yeti due to its hairy limbs.
Fun Fact: The “hair” on a Yeti Crab’s claws is not for warmth but serves as a habitat for bacteria, which the crab then consumes as a food source. This adaptation is an example of chemosynthesis in deep-sea ecosystems and a type of farming.
What Other Animals Begin With ‘Y’?
That completes our list of animals that begin with the letter Y.
Hopefully you’ve learned a few new ones, but are there any that we’re missing in our list that you would like to see covered?
If so, get in touch. Please see our Animal A-Z list for animals that start with different letters.