Learning animal names (brief introduction)

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The generic term for animals in Chinese is 动物 dong wu（4, 4), animal - literally moving thing
Below is a short gloss of some animals, you may notice that some animals have this radical 犭which is thought to originally be a side view of a dog

Now this radical is used to clue us in that we are looking at an animal character

马 ma (3), Horse


斑马 Ban ma (1,3), Zebra - literally striped + horse


河马 He ma (2, 3), Hippo - literally river + horse



猫 Mao (1), Cat


熊 Xiong (2), Bear


熊猫 Xiong mao (2, 1), Panda - literally bear + cat


小熊猫 Xiao xiong mao (3, 2, 1), Red panda - literally little bear cat


浣熊 Huan xiong (4, 2), Raccoon - literally washing bear (supposedly because raccoons wash their food before they eat it)


龙 Long (2), Dragon


恐龙 Kong long (3, 2), Dinosaur - literally fearful dragon


老鼠 Lao shu (3, 3), Rat/mouse - literally old mouse


松鼠 Song shu (1, 3), Squirrel - literally pine tree mouse


狗, Gou (3), Dog


狼, Lang (2), Wolf


牛, Niu (2), Cow


野牛, Ye Niu (3, 2), Buffalo, literally field cow


猪, Zhu (1), Pig (this character is considered taboo by muslim chinese people and not written out)


鸟, Niao (3), Bird


鸡, Ji (1), Chicken (also slang for female prostitute)


鸭子, Ya zi （1, neutral), Duck - literally duck child (also slang for male prostitute)


猫头鹰, Mao tou ying (1, 2, 1), Owl - literally cat head eagle


蛇 She, (2), Snake


蜘蛛, zhi zhu (1, 1), Spider, literally spider spider


蚂蚁, ma yi (3, 3), Ant, literally insect ant


密封, mi feng (4, 1), Bee, literally honey bee (if you reverse the placement of these characters it becomes the word for honey)

 

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密封, mi feng (4, 1), Bee

That is 蜜蜂, 蜜 means sweet, thick, fluid-like food, 蜂 (Apoidea) is the general name of this kind of insects.
In Chinese characters, you will find that most insect (虫) names use the word "虫" as the radical, just like 蜘蛛 (spider), 蚂蚁 (ant), 蜜蜂 (bee).

 

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Another one:
鲸 jing(1) which is made up of 鱼 yu(2) and 京 jing(1)

This is a whale

Yu tells you it's a type of fish (semantic)
Jing tells you it sounds like jing (phonetic)

观鲸 guan(1)jing(1) whale watching