Most of these games hide one animal a day and turn every wrong guess into a clue. Metazooa places each species you name on a branching family tree at the point where it splits from the answer, so a fish branches off early and a close cousin joins near the end. Others compare guesses on traits such as family, diet, habitat or weight, or start from a photo that sharpens, a row of look-alike species from one family, or a close view of droppings.
Birds and dogs get sections of their own. The bird games work from a photo, a few seconds of song, the four-letter code that bird banders use or a map of where a species spends the current month, and the dog games ask for a breed, by photo or letter by letter. The last group turns animal facts into other kinds of puzzle: placing a range on a blank map, judging a heart rate, picking the nearest relative out of three, or listing animals against the clock.
Many of them change over at midnight UTC, which is 7:00 p.m. in New York in winter and 8:00 p.m. in summer, while Rottle moves on to its next breed at midnight in India. Several keep an archive or an unlimited mode for the days when one animal is not enough.
Every species you try is hung on a branching tree beside the mystery animal, splitting off at the taxonomic rank where the two part ways, and 20 guesses are allowed. It comes from Trainwreck Labs, and Metaflora does the same for plants.
Hosted by a capybara named Kapi-sensei: one animal a day, a hint and a mosaic that both get easier with each miss, and six guesses, each mapped onto life's family tree where it meets the answer. Broad guesses such as bear count too.
Eight challenges in one place. Classic Match compares guesses with the answer on taxonomy, habitat, diet and size; the rest cover stat duels, a continent map, a photo under pixel blocks, Venn sorting, connections, a 30-second true-or-false round and a reverse quiz.
A close photo of droppings from a real animal and six guesses at who left them. Every guess adds a row marking matches, partial overlaps and misses, with arrows for heavier or lighter, and earlier days can be replayed.
A wildlife photo from iNaturalist and nine species to choose from, all in the answer's own family, so every option is a close relative. A wrong pick brings a hint about the answer's home range, then one about a feature, and fact pages follow.
Six tries at a mammal of the sea, rivers or shore, from seals and sea otters to whales and dolphins. Numbered clues on looks, behavior, range and status add up, and a yellow guess means you share the answer's family.
One shark species a day, narrowed down as each guess is set against it on classification and other traits. Outside the daily, an endless mode adds crates and streaks, and there are practice rounds and an archive too.
A bird to identify each day from photos credited to eBird contributors; each guess gets marked against the answer at the level of order, family and genus, then common name. A World edition and a practice mode are offered.
North American birds only: you get small pieces of a photo and brief clips of the bird's song, then pick the species from a list. Photos and recordings carry their makers' names, and a large back catalog of past birds can be played.
A pictured British bird to name: since answers vary in length, letters are just green if present and red if absent. A hangman-style hint fills in as you find letters, and broad names such as owl are allowed but affect the score.
Wordle with bird banding codes: six guesses at a code of four letters, such as MODO, the one for mourning dove, with tiles marking letters placed, misplaced or missing. It came out of the Audubon Slack and offers themes.
Five birds daily, from widespread to local, and a pin to drop where each one probably is at this moment. Inside the range scores 1,000, and since birds migrate, the right answer moves with the month. Unlimited and archive modes follow.
A photo of a real dog shared by a player, and five attempts at its breed. One puzzle features a single breed and another a mix, and the dog's picture travels with your shared score.
A dog breed on a Wordle board: six tries, each a genuine breed name, one word long and of the correct length. A new numbered breed appears at midnight in India, past ones stay open in an archive, and a Dogcyclopedia lists breeds.
Five animals a day, each shown as a silhouette with its name, and a blank world map to drag under a fixed crosshair until it sits in the range. A miss is scored by its distance to the range's nearest edge.
One animal in a given state, for instance a black bear during summer, and ten seconds to drag a dial to its heart rate, on a scale that tops out at 1,000 a minute. Then reveal the real rate to compare.
Three animals and one question: which is the closest relative of the featured creature, as with an orca set beside a humpback whale, a great white shark and a dolphin. One tap decides, and a streak counts the days.
Here the animal is named at the start, and the puzzle is matching the right emoji to eight facts about it: class, size, habitat, diet, a trait, lifespan, origin and status. Squads let signed-in players compete.
A naming sprint with a daily twist: some days ask for as many animals from one group, such as beetles, as you can type in a minute, others for 100 animals in the shortest time. Every valid name scores.
Nine squares, each wanting an animal with the trait named for its row and the one named for its column, such as living in trees or being fast. One animal fits all six, and it is the day's featured animal.
