Halo!
Today, to celebrate my animal-loving sister’s birthday, I’ll be making a post on animal names in Bahasa Indonesia.
Now, I’m not a zoologist, so I’ll only be giving you the general names of commonly found animals that have a specific name in Bahasa Indonesia. Admittedly, there are animals whose Indonesian and English names are the same, such as the komodo dragon which we simply call komodo and the orang-utan which for us literally means ‘jungle man’. There are also some animals that actually have a proper Indonesian name but people are more familiar with their English name so the English name is more widely-known than the Indonesian names, such as the case for guinea pig and sugar glider.
By the way, animal in Bahasa Indonesia can be called ‘binatang’ or ‘hewan’ or, a bit rarely, ‘fauna’. All of them means any organism in the Animalia kingdom, though hewan is a word derived from Arabian and tend to be used when referring to tamed and domesticated animals, whilst binatang has a wilder connotation. For some animals that can be both tame and wild, such as cats, dogs, and snakes, both words can be used for them.
Anyway, I’ll start with the names of common pets (hewan/binatang peliharaan) in Bahasa Indonesia.
Cat = Kucing
Cockatoo = Burung kakak tua
Dog = Anjing
Goldfish = Ikan mas
Ikan mas (pet)
Guinea pig = Tikus belanda (though usually simply called as guinea pig)
Hamster = Hamster
Hedgehog = Landak mini
Marmot = Marmut
Parrot = Burung beo
Rabbit = Kelinci (hares are also called kelinci)
Sugar glider = Wupih sirsik (though usually simply called as sugar glider)
Landak mini
Next, we have household pests, which can uncommonly be treated as pets, such as:
Ant = Semut
Caterpillar = Ulat
Cockroach = Kecoak
Fly = Lalat
Gecko = Cicak
Mole cricket = Orong-orong
Mosquito = Nyamuk
Rat/mouse = Tikus
Snail = Siput or keong
Spider = Laba-laba
Termite = Rayap
Worms = Cacing
Cicak
As we’ve touched a lot of insects when looking at the pests above, here’s some (wretched) insects in Bahasa Indonesia:
Bee = Lebah
Beetle = Kumbang
Butterfly = Kupu-kupu
Cricket = Jangkrik
Dragonfly = Capung
Firefly = Kunang-kunang
Grasshopper = Belalang
Moth = Ngengat
Wasp = Tawon
Jangkrik
I’ll also get the reptiles and amphibians out of the way first….
Crocodile = Buaya
Frog = Katak
Lizard = Kadal
Sea turtle = Penyu
Snake = Ular
Toad = Kodok
Turtle = Kura-kura
Penyu
Next, here are some farm animals:
Buffalo = Kerbau
Chicken = Ayam
Cow = Sapi
Donkey = Keledai
Duck = Bebek
Goat = Kambing
Goose = Angsa
Horse = Kuda
Pig = Babi
Sheep = Domba
Turkey = Kalkun
Kambing
And other mammals, usually wild:
Ape = Kera
Asian palm civet = Luwak (famous for 'producing' coffee beans)
Bear = Beruang
Beaver = Biwara (though people usually call beaver as berang-berang, perhaps because otter and beaver are both rarely found in Indonesia and, to us, seem quite similar, to the point that berang-berang is more often used to refer to beaver rather than otter)
Bull = Banteng
Camel = Unta
Civet = Musang
Deer = Rusa
Elephant = Gajah
Fox = Rubah
Giraffe = Jerapah
Hippopotamus = Kuda nil
Kangaroo = Kangguru
Lion = Singa
Luwak
Monkey = Monyet
Otter = Berang-berang
Panther = Harimau kumbang
Polar bear = Beruang kutub
Porcupine = Landak
Rhinoceros = Badak
Seal = Anjing laut (lit. 'sea dog')
Sea lion = Singa laut
Sloth = Kungkang
Slow loris = Kukang
Squirrel = Tupai or bajing
Tiger = Harimau or macan
Warthog = Babi hutan
Wolf = Serigala
Kukang
Here come the marine animals, which some are already mentioned in my previous post about seafood in Indonesia:
Clam = Kerang
Crab = Kepiting
Dolphin = Lumba-lumba
Fish = Ikan
Jellyfish = Ubur-ubur
Octopus = Gurita
Seahorse = Kuda laut
Sea urchin = Bulu babi
Shark = Ikan hiu
Shrimp and prawn = Udang
Squid = Cumi-cumi
Starfish = Bintang laut
Whale = Ikan paus
Udang (dead tho….)
And ending with the birds:
Crow = Burung gagak
Dove = Burung merpati
Eagle = Burung elang
Owl = Burung hantu (literally means ‘ghost bird’)
Peacock = Burung merak
Penguin = Pinguin
Seagull = Burung camar
Sparrow = Burung gereja
As you can see, almost all bird names in Bahasa Indonesia contain the word ‘burung’, which is the literal translation for ‘bird’.
Burung gereja
You might have also noticed that I didn’t write down the names for animals’ offspring (e.g. puppy & kitten) nor for their gender (e.g. mare & rooster). This is because in Bahasa Indonesia, we don’t actually have a different word for them. For example, a puppy is simply called ‘anak anjing’ and a kitten is called ‘anak kucing’, with the word ‘anak’ actually means ‘child’ (and is also used when referring to human children). Gender is the same, with male animals being labelled ‘jantan’ and females being called ‘betina’ (note that these two are only applicable to animals and not to human, though manliness in human can be expressed as 'kejantanan'). So for example, a mare is simply a ‘kuda betina’ and a rooster is a ‘ayam jantan’, though some also call roosters as ‘ayam jago’ (this only applies to chickens).
It’s easier, right? And you don’t have to remember too many names for just one animal. Note that Javanese has different ways to call the offspring of each animal, but I’ve forgotten them all….
For their meat (or ‘daging’, not their cuts mind you), we also don’t differentiate, so beef is simply ‘daging sapi’ and pork is ‘daging babi’.
Other than those ‘real’ animals, we also have mythological creatures, such as:
Dragon = Naga
Garuda = (Burung) Garuda
Mermaid = Putri duyung (with dugong actually being called ‘ikan duyung’)
Phoenix = Burung foniks or burung api
Though for the most part we use the original name rather than creating a translation for them.
Naga
Right, that’s all for now. Tell me if I miss anything or if you want to know the name of an animal (though you can search them up in Wikipedia most of the time)^^
See you next time~
And once again, happy birthday to my dearest sister~
As a bonus, here’re photos of our dog, Helly, and my aunt’s cat in Bandung, Olaf
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