🐸 Rivers, lakes and ponds animals

Rivers, lakes, ponds and marshes hold fresh water, not salty sea water. Frogs and salamanders start life there as swimmers with gills. Fish, turtles, otters and beavers live in the water, and herons, eagles and moose come to its edge to find food.

The biggest and the smallest here: the green anaconda and the common green darner

🧒 our measuring child, 4 ft1.2 m🐍 Green anaconda, 26 ft8 m long🦋 Common green darner, 3 in8 cm long🔍 Pip the pangolin zoomed in 40 times on the common green darner

⚖️ Compare them

21 animals here

Record holders here

Fastest: the mallard, 51 mph83 km/h1
Heaviest: the moose, 701 to 1,400 lb318 to 635 kg2
Lives longest: the Japanese giant salamander, 70 years70 years3

Rivers, lakes and ponds animals for kids, A to Z

🐊 American alligator: It digs pools in the swamp that help other animals in dry weather.
🐸 American bullfrog: Named for its deep, bellowing call, like a bull's.
🦩 American flamingo: Pink from the food it eats, it often rests on one leg.
🐸 Axolotl: It keeps its feathery gills its whole life and can regrow its legs.
🦅 Bald eagle: A big eagle with a white head that catches fish from rivers.
🦀 Blue crab: A crab with paddle-shaped back legs that make it a great swimmer.
🐹 Capybara: The biggest rodent in the world, and a very good swimmer.
🦋 Common green darner: A green dragonfly that, like birds, may fly far south for winter.
🐸 Goliath frog: The biggest frog in the world, and it hardly makes a sound.
🐍 Green anaconda: The heaviest snake alive floats in rivers with just its eyes showing.
🐸 Hellbender: A big salamander that breathes through its wrinkly skin under river rocks.
🐸 Japanese giant salamander: A giant salamander with tiny eyes that feels the water to find food.
🦆 Mallard: The duck in most ponds, and the ancestor of many farm ducks.
🦌 Moose: The biggest deer in the world, and a surprisingly good swimmer.
🦫 North American beaver: Beavers build dams of sticks and mud to make their own ponds.
🦦 North American river otter: A playful swimmer that slides down muddy banks and snowy hills.
🦝 Raccoon: A raccoon feels its food with sensitive hands, often dunking it in water.
🐟 Red-bellied piranha: A fish with sharp teeth that is much shier than the stories say.
🐊 Saltwater crocodile: The biggest reptile alive, at home in rivers and even the sea.
🐟 Sockeye salmon: A fish that swims home to the very river where it hatched.
🐋 West Indian manatee: A gentle plant-eater of warm water, and a cousin of the elephant.

USGS, checked 30 October 2026.
National Park Service, Denali, checked 30 October 2026.
Smithsonian's National Zoo, checked 30 October 2026.