Some of the biggest and best zoos in the world are located in the Middle East. Therefore, if you travel to the Arab world, add a trip to the zoo to your travel itinerary. Sure, they’ll have the names of the animals in Arabic with pictures. In fact, they’ll probably even have the names of animals in Arabic and English so you won’t miss your favorites. However, just in case, today we’re going to look at the names of animal and their homes in Arabic. We’ll also take a look at the names of baby animals in case any cute little animals are born while you’re there. So, let’s get ready to go to the zoo, shall we?


Some Favorite Zoo Animals


One of the first animals that you’ll find in a Middle Eastern zoo is most likely a tiger (نمر /namir). Tigers live in dens (أوكار/awkar). A baby tiger in Arabic is called الأشبال/al’ashbal meaning “cub”. However, though we also call a baby bear (الدب /aldubu) a “cub” in English, in Arabic they call it ديسمبر/disambir. Likewise, though in English we call a baby fox (الثعلب/ althaelab) a cub, in Arabic, it’s هــَــجــْــرَس /hijras.

In the wild, elephants (الفيلة/alfila) live in herds (قطعان/qutean) much like cows. Also, like cows, elephant babies are called “calves” in English. However, in Arabic, they call elephant babies  دعــْــفــَــل/ dafl and cow babies are عــِــجــْــل /eijil. It’s the same for a baby camel (جمل/jamal). Though Americans might call a baby camel a calf, Arabs call it حـَــوَار / hiwar.

Further, Arabs call a baby deer رِيـــم / reem  (fawn).  A baby sheep is حــَــمــَــل / humil (lamb) and a baby goat   جــَــدْىْ / jedi (kid or billy in English). Though we call both a baby horse and a baby donkey a foal or colt in English, in Arabic, they call them مــُــهـــْـــر / muhr and جــَــحــْــش  /jihash, respectively.


The Words for Baby Birds


In English, we call most baby birds “chicks”. However, all baby birds’ names in Arabic tend to be unique to the certain bird you’re talking about.  For example, Arabs call a baby ostrich  رَال / ral, while they call a baby falcon هــَــيــْــث /hayth. A baby chicken is a ثــَــقّ / thaq. What we call in English a squab (a baby pigeon), Arabs call جــَــوْزَل /guzel. What’s an eaglet in Arabic? Well, they call it هــَــيــْــثـــَـــم /haitham.

So, there you have the names some animals and their offspring you might see at a Middle Eastern zoo. As a reminder, zoo animals are still wild animals, so please don’t feed them your falafel sandwich, no matter how cute they are.


Now that you’ve learned about some animals and their names in Arabic, why not learn more? Whether you’re looking for a few words for when you travel or you want to know more everyday Arabic, we’ve got you covered. The Kaleela Arabic Learning app is the convenient and easy-to-use app where you can learn Arabic whenever you want, wherever you want. Find out more how to download it to your iOS or Android device today by visiting us at kaleela.com.

Kaleela – Learn Arabic the Right Way!

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