25 Most Popular Animals On Google Search

Posted by , Updated on November 14, 2023

We love animals – there’s no denying it. But besides searching for Grumpy Cat or adorable pugs, we spend a lot of our time on the internet searching for animals. In this list, we bring you the most popular animals searched for or trending in the United States on Google from 2014 and also include some fun facts you can tell your friends.

Dig into this list of the top 25 most popular animals on Google.

25

Bison

american bison

Though it was the 129th most searched animal in 2014, the bison made the list of top 10 trending animals for the year. The American bison was almost hunted to extinction in the 1800’s but has since recovered, largely due to the commercial raising of bison for their meat.

24

Dolphin

spinner dolphin pod

Highly intelligent animals, dolphins are also very social – they will help sick or injured members of their pod come to the surface for air and can even switch between pods.

23

Eagle

bald eagle

Though Americans are most familiar with the bald eagle, there are about 60 species of eagle in the world, mostly in Eurasia and Africa with 44 species. North America only has two resident eagle species; the Bald Eagle and the Golden Eagle.

22

Pony

shetland pony

A pony is a small horse but, contrary to popular thought, is not a baby or young horse. These horses likely developed their shorter legs, thicker manes, and smaller statures due to living on the fringes of livable horse habitat.

21

Ape

ape

The easiest way to differentiate an ape from a monkey is to look at its backside: apes have no tails. The great ape branch of the family in Africa is mostly threatened today due to the Ebola virus.

20

Lobster

european lobster

At the far end of the top 20 most popular animals on Google, the lobster can live up to 70 years old. Unlike us humans, lobsters don’t slow down or become weaker with age; they likely even become more fertile as they grow older.

19

Monkey

wolf's mona monkey

Monkeys are distinguishable from other primates by their tails and dry noses. Capuchin monkeys are sometimes trained as service animals to help with feeding and personal care for quadriplegics and other people with mobility impairments.

18

Cow

cow and calf

Sacred to Hindus, the cow is one of the most common types of livestock in the world. Bulls and other cattle are commonly thought to be angered by the colour red, however cattle are red-green colour-blind and can’t distinguish the colour. The rustling of a matador’s cape leads bulls to charge.

17

Deer

red deer stag

Native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, the deer is widespread except in Africa where there is only one indigenous species: the Barbary stag. Other than the Chinese water deer, all male deer (and both sexes of reindeer) have antlers.

16

Duck

mandarin duck male

The feathered birds inhabiting much of our waterways, ducks are, in most cases, monogamous but only for a year – after the young are grown the couple often splits. The word duck originates from the Old English word *dūce meaning “diver”.

15

Rabbit

rabbit

The rabbit is especially a popularly searched animal on Google in North America since over half of the global rabbit population lives on the continent. Rabbits are different from hares which are larger, have longer ears, and are born hairy and with good eyesight.

14

Spider

zebra spider

Turn away now if you have arachnophobia; there are over 43,000 species of spider known today and, out of all these spiders, we only know of one which is herbivorous.

13

Gray Wolf

gray wolf

The gray wolf is different from other Canis members largely due to its more outgoing and expressive demeanor. The dog and gray wolf came from a similar ancestor about 15,000 years ago in Europe. The gray wolf is properly popular on Google: it’s one of the most well-researched animals in the world with one of the highest amounts of literature written about it.

12

Turkey

wild turkey

A common sight on American and Canadian Thanksgiving tables, the turkey bird was actually named after the country. The Turk people have inhabited present-day Turkey since the 1300s and it was through this area that the guinea fowl was imported from East Africa to Europe. Europeans landing in the New World incorrectly identified the bird we today know as the turkey with the word Europeans referred to the guinea fowl as: the turkey cock.

11

Lion

male lion

Until about 10,000 years ago, the lion was a much more popular animal around the world – after humans, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal in the world.

10

Pig

pig

The top trending animal in 2014, the pig is also a highly intelligent and social animal and increasingly becoming a more common house pet. When raised for their meat, pigs make up 38% of worldwide meat production.

9

Snake

mad purple snake

Snakes are often seen as creatures to fear – maybe this comes from their presence on every continent except Antarctica and a few notable exceptions of Ireland, New Zealand, and some other islands. Beyond being quite a useful animal, the snake has loads of interesting facts associated with it, such as its generally only having one working lung.

8

Shark

hammerhead shark

Despite being billed as one of the most terrifying creatures on the planet, the shark is a predator but is responsible for considerably few human deaths – only 4.3 on average annually. More dangerous animals include cows and horses which each kill 20 people in the U.S. alone every year. (The most popular animal on Google on our list even kills seven times more people than the shark.)

7

Bird

bluebird of happiness

Holding its position in the top 10 (along with the following six animals) since Google Trends started in 2004, the bird is one of the most common animals on the Earth today. Since the 1600’s, almost 130 bird species have gone extinct due to humans.

6

Bear

eurasian brown bear

A lover of #5 on our list, the bear is a mostly solitary animal besides when courting or with young. Out of the eight species of bear, six are omnivorous; otherwise, the panda bear almost exclusively eats bamboo and the polar bear almost exclusively eats meat.

5

Fish

largemouth bass

Ironically coming in just after the bear, fish have more species diversity (at 32,000 different species) than any other vertebrate animal. They also show great diversity in size from the 0.3 inch (8 mm) stout infant fish to the 52 feet (16 m) long whale shark. (And, yes, sharks are technically fish.)

4

Chicken

poltava chicken

Chickens are so widely raised for their meat that they outnumber any other bird species – today there are over 24 billion of these cluckers globally.

3

Horse

horse

Used for millennia in war and labor, the horse originally had multiple toes (about 50 million years of evolution back). Most horses are domesticated and even the horses people refer to as wild are actually feral: their ancestors were domesticated by humans at some point and since escaped and lived in the wild. The only true wild horse is the Przewalski’s horse, a rare and endangered species recently reintroduced to the Mongolian steppes.

2

Cat

Tortoise shell cat

Though charting at the #2 spot on our list of the most popular animals on Google, the cat is the most popular pet in the world. Beyond being excellent companions, cats can see in near-darkness, making them top-notch hunters.

1

Dog

australian cattle dog

Man’s best friend takes our #1 spot as the most searched animal on Google. Though only 17-24% of dogs are domesticated pets, the global dog population is estimated as high as 1 billion, meaning that the dog really is top dog.

In order to show their love for these animals, people usually design a variety of images based on these animals and make a variety of peripheral products based on these animal images, such as custom pins, keychains, stickers, and so on. These products are popular among animal lovers and are not only worn in daily life, but also given as gifts to others.