Animals that start with A

The alpaca is a kind of domestic animal bred for its wool, the same reason people keep sheep. Alpacas are related to llamas and camels but are a lot smaller than both. Alpacas come in lots of different colours, such as black, white and lots of different shades of brown.

Sea anemones are closely related to coral and jellyfish. They eat small sea creatures and small fish that drift past them into their tentacles. The tentacles have poison in them, and the anemone stings them to kill them before it eats them. Sea anemones spend most of their lives stuck to the same rock or other surface, but can unstick themselves and swim to a new rock if conditions aren't good for them, such as if their rock dries out for too long or something is trying to eat or damage the anemone. Sea anemones can reproduce in the usual way by releasing eggs and sperm, but they can also reproduce by budding off new anemones or by splitting themselves in half to form a new anemone.

Anglerfish are small, predatory fish. They have one or more long, thin, flexible spines on their heads with a fleshy lump at the end. They can move this spine around and dangle the lump like bait in front of their mouths. Anglerfish are fairly rare and have an unusual way of reproducing. Male anglerfish are much smaller than females, and when they are mature they bite onto a female and then wither away to nothing but reproductive organs. They live like parasites on the female's bloodstream.

An ant is a small, common insect found all over the world. They live in organised colonies that are mostly workers, with one queen.

Antelope is a word used for any one of a large group of animals that are related to goats, sheep and cows. Many antelopes look like deer but are actually not closely related - antelopes keep their horns through their lifetime and deer shed their horns every year. The antelope in the picture is an eland.