Behaving like animals
A little bird told me
Birds of a feather, flock together
On a wing and a prayer
Feather brain
Swan song
Hawkish
Bird on the wire
Old bird
Proud as a peacock
Lame duck
Sitting duck
Home to roost
Cock of the walkfel
Cock o’ the North
Canary in a coalmine
Sings like a canary
Hen’s teeth
Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
Bird-brain
Wise old owl
Make like an ostrich
Eagle eyed
Bird in the hand
Bird’s eye view
Greedy as a gannet
Love birds
Cuckoo in the nest
Dead as a dodo
Parrot fashion
Doggy style
Working like a dog
It’s a dog’s life
Sick as a dog
Black dog
Hang dog
Done up like a dog’s dinner
Let sleeping dogs lie
Can’t teach an old dog new tricks
Happy as a puppy with two tails
Dogging
Dog gone
Dog tied
Mutt’s nuts
Dog’s bollocks
Cat’s pyjamas
Cat’s out of the bag
Curiosity killed the cat
Smug as a cat with the cream
Look what the cat dragged in
Cat got your tongue?
Cat burglar
Kittenish
Not enough room to swing a cat
Cat among the pigeons
Raining cats and dogs
Breed like rabbits
At it like rabbits
Making bacon
Whale of a time
Eager beaver
Beavering away
Doe eyed
Like flies around shit
Bullshit
Bullish
Bull in a china shop
A red rag to a bull
Happy as a pig in shit
Pearls before swine
Making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
Pigs might fly
Pig in a poke
Place like a pig sty
Quiet as a dormouse
Quiet as a mouse
Timid as a mouse
Ratted on
Dirty rat
Smelling a rat
Snail’s pace
Flogging a dead horse
Putting the cart before the horse
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
Can’t lead a horse to water
Could eat a horse
Hung like a horse
Work horse
Clothes horse
Saw horse
Horse faced
Stubborn as a mule
Hung like a donkey
Lionheart
Busy as a bee
The bee’s knees
Prickly as a hedgehog
Plenty more fish in the sea
A fish out of water
Shooting fish in a barrel
Like a fish needs a bicycle
Fisheye lens
Barrel of monkeys
Monkey business
Monkeying around
Monkey on your back
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Snake oil
Nest of vipers
Clam up
Rammed
Two shakes of a lamb’s tale
Mutton dressed as lamb
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
Lamb to the slaughter
Pass a camel through the eye of a needle
Don’t be a lemming
Acting like sheep
Like a moth to a flame
Social butterfly
Float like a butterfly sting like a bee
Beestings
A spider’s web of intrigue
Strong as an ox
Snake eyes
Snake in the grass
See you later alligator
In a while crocodile
Crocodile tears
Crocodile shoes
Ship of the desert
Sure footed as a goat
Wily as a coyote
When the cows come home
Cow eyed
Leopards don’t change their spots
Hen party
Stag do
Opening a can of worms
Worm that turned
Worm’s eye view
Jumping about like a box of frogs
Frog in the throat
Slippery as an eel
Blind as a bat
Sly old fox
Snug as a bug in a rug
Bunny boiler
Bear hug
Bearish
Bug eyed
Bats in the belfry
Lounge lizard
Pissed as a newt
Drunk as a skunk
High as a kite
Guinea pig
Elephant in the room
Seeing pink elephants
Memory like an elephant
Size of an elephant
Furry friends
With lots of extra suggestions and inspiration from LittleBird and a clutch from Jon Edwards, for which many thanks. Of course, someone had already created a page with hundreds of #AnimalAphorism, but I didn’t look before I started mine, honest. There list is much longer, much better and links to meanings, so I’ll just give them a shout out and save myself the extra work.
All photos by Dave Bradley.