Herbivores for Kids: Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras and Koalas

Eight animals that eat only plants: the elephant, giraffe, zebra and rhino of Africa, the koala of Australia, and the deer, rabbit and horse that children may see much closer to home. Herbivores eat leaves, grass, fruit, bark or roots, and many of them spend most of the day eating.

Elephant fills an entire row of the 8x8 grid. Rabbit, rhino and zebra read backwards, and koala runs from the bottom up.

Herbivores Vocabulary: 8 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down; 4 of the 8 read backwards. The longest word is Elephant, with 8 letters.

Deer: A graceful plant-eating mammal with hooves. Males of most species grow antlers that fall off and regrow every year.
Elephant: The largest land animal, a plant-eater with a long trunk, found in Africa and Asia. An adult can eat over 100 kg of plants a day.
Giraffe: The tallest animal in the world, an African plant-eater that uses its long neck to reach the top leaves of trees.
Horse: A large hoofed mammal that eats grass and hay, tamed by people more than 5,000 years ago.
Koala: An Australian marsupial that eats almost only eucalyptus leaves. It is not a bear, despite the nickname "koala bear".
Rabbit: A small long-eared mammal that eats grass and other plants and lives in underground burrows.
Rhino: The rhinoceros, a huge plant-eater of Africa and Asia with one or two horns made of keratin, like fingernails.
Zebra: An African wild horse with black and white stripes. No two zebras have exactly the same pattern.

How to Solve the Herbivores Word Search

"Elephant" fills a whole row, from edge to edge. "Koala" is the only word with a K and "zebra" the only one with a Z. Look for the doubles too: EE in "deer", FF in "giraffe" and BB in "rabbit".

How Long the Herbivores Word Search Takes

9 players have solved this puzzle on their first try, and they took a median of 39 seconds. Half of them finished between 34 seconds and 52 seconds. None of them needed a hint.

Times measured on Word Search Free, online play only, first attempt per player. Updated 2026-10-15.

Plant-Eating Animal Activities for Kindergarten

Ask children what each animal eats: grass, leaves, bark or fruit.
Compare this list with Carnivores and count which animals children have seen in real life.
Draw a giraffe reaching for the top of a tree, and explain how its long neck helps.