Random Animal Generator
- aardvark
The random animal generator draws from 40 species, one to twenty at a time. The list deliberately skips the animals every list starts with (no cat, dog, lion or elephant) because a picker that keeps returning the obvious answers is useless as a prompt.
How it works
Selection is uniform: every animal has a 1 in 40 chance on each draw, and no animal repeats within a single draw.
- Mammals: capybara, pangolin, quokka, narwhal, okapi, marmot, wombat, lemur.
- Birds: albatross, cassowary, kingfisher, puffin, toucan, jackdaw, osprey.
- Reptiles and amphibians: axolotl, chameleon, gecko, salamander.
- The list is weighted towards animals with distinctive silhouettes, which suits drawing prompts.
Examples
A single animal
How many
1
Result
pangolin
One draw from 40. Useful as a drawing or writing prompt precisely because it is not an animal you have already drawn a hundred times.
Ten animals
How many
10
Result
okapi, puffin, axolotl, marmot, cassowary, stoat, narwhal, gecko, ibex, toucan
Ten of 40 leaves 30 unseen, so a second draw of ten overlaps by only two or three on average.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there no common animals like cats and dogs on the list?
Because the tool exists to produce prompts, and a prompt you could have thought of yourself is not doing any work. The 40 species were chosen to be recognisable enough to picture but unusual enough to be interesting. An okapi is a better drawing prompt than a dog.
Are these all real species?
Yes, all 40 are real animals. The quokka, okapi and pangolin sound invented but are not, which is part of why they work as prompts.
Can the same animal appear twice in one draw?
No. Each draw removes an animal from the pool as it picks, so a draw of twenty gives twenty different animals. Separate draws can repeat.