This used to be mine too—until my first Buddhist teacher, a Tibetan Lama, mentioned that while he was still living in Tibet he once saw a “snake” unfold its wings and fly away … 
Even the emojis here on D&D look similar, don’t they? 
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It’s funny for me that we’re talking about the words for goat; I went down a deeep rabbit hole about words for goat and sheep. There is an interesting compound which means ‘goats and sheep’, ajeḷakā, so they were certainly recognized as distinct animals, but there seems to have been some overlap in how the terms aja and eḷakā were used. Even more interesting, actually kind of astonishing, to me, is that goats and sheep appear to have a common ancestor!
(Thanks for your contributions! I’m thinking maybe the best thing to do is just put all the possible words in as translations, rather than trying to pick just one…)
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Also, isn’t there a word for ‘eagle’? Here are the two hits that come up on SC:
“Tayo supaṇṇā caturo ca haṃsā,
“There are three hundreds of phoenixes, four of swans, and five of eagles.Byagghīnisā pañcasatā ca jhāyino;
This palace belongs to him who practiced absorption.Tayidaṃ vimānaṃ jalate ca brahme,
It shines, Brahmā,Obhāsayaṃ uttarassaṃ disāyan”ti.
lighting up the northern quarter!”
So maybe byagghīnisā?
Somewhere in here too:
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https://dsalsrv04.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/pali_query.py?qs=Byaggha&searchhws=yes
PTS dict. Says it’s a tiger.( Byaggha Byaggha [cp. Sk. vyāghra] a tiger ) ( Vyaggha [cp. Vedic vyāghra] a tiger )
And hawk
Vyagghīnasa [?] a hawk S i.148 (as ˚nisa); J vi.538. Another word for “hawk” is sakuṇagghi .
Maybe hawk and eagle are interchangeable in this case?
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@sujato could tell us 
https://suttacentral.net/sn6.6/en/sujato
I was wondering if maybe it could be a compound of some kind, meaning something like “tiger bird” or some such, since eagles are so hard core 
For sure, let’s add sakuṇagghi.
This is fun 
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And
Squirrel: kalandaka
vulture: ghijja
Yes, fun😁 and very distracting…
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squirrel: kalandaka
vulture: ghijja
Eep did I accidentally delete those? Sorry, putting them back post haste!
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Khaggamaccha Swordfish
Just kidding - I made it up.
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In Sinhala too, vyaghraya is tiger just found out
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The crow hasn’t made it into the list, it seems.
This is really a fun thread! 
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Eeep sorry, it was in there before; I am trying to maintain a JSON file and I’m getting into version hell copying and pasting!
The kāka is back!
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Octopus 
: aṭṭhapada
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aṭṭhapada Is a real word, but it means spider!
Makkaṭaka
Spider, also called aṭṭhapadā “eight legs”, and uṇṇānābhi “belly spinner”, Hindi makdi Ja.ii.147 Ja.iv.538 Ja.v.47. Spiders are insectivorous arthropods of the order Araneae. There are dozens of species of spiders in northern India but not enough information is given in the Tipiṭaka to identify any particular type. In one place we read of dew drops hanging on spiders” webs making it look like a net of pearls Ja.i.120. The Buddha said: “Those infatuated by passion are carried along by a self-created stream, like a spider following its own web” Dhp.347.
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Ha! 
I just was wowed by how much it actually sounded like the order octopoda which octopuses belong to.
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I just found that there are two words for snake in the EBTs:
Uraga, in Uraga Sutta (Sn 1.1)
Ahi , in Ahirāja Sutta (AN 4.67)
And then we also have the Water Snake Alagadda from the Alagaddūpama Sutta (MN 22)
Maybe naga was specifically associated with greatness, either size-wise (Elephants or the huge mythological snakes) or spiritual power (arahants) , while they had other names for the common snakes!
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The translation of nāga as dragon seems reasonable, and that’s how it was translated from Sanskrit into Chinese. But that difference between the more snake-like and dragon-like forms made me wonder about the Chinese character 龍. As I remembered, it was originally pictorial, and depicting the form of a dragon. I was curious whether it was more snake-like or more dragon-like. The oldest form I could find was this:
This dragon looks fairly snake-like, and with a nice little hat.
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All I know is if I am being pursued by a dragon in a hat, imma book it.
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There is also the strange “āsīvisa”, in AN 4.110, perhaps based on “ahi”?
“Cattāro’me, bhikkhave, āsīvisā. Katame cattāro? …"
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After many moons I am happy to announce that there is an animal with a long ū!
Sarabhū
Indian Chameleon, Hindi sarab, Chamaeleon zeylandicus.Growing up to 350 mm long the Indian chameleon has a laterally compressed body, a conical casque on the top of its head and large eyes. Its skin is covered with granular scales and is normally green with yellow and black bands and spots but can change color very quickly when the creature is excited. Indian peasants have a superstitious dread of chameleons, mistakenly believing them to be poisonous. When a monk died of a snake bite, the Buddha taught the others to chant some verses that would protect them from noxious creatures, including chameleons A.ii.73
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