There are about 2000 vertebrate species that are found in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. The protected areas of Tamil Nadu provide safe habitat for these species.

Mammals

The mammals found in Tamil Nadu include the
Asian Elephant

Asian Elephant

The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m....

, Bengal Tiger

Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

, Indian Leopard

Indian leopard

The Indian leopard is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the five big cats found in India, apart from Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard....

, Sloth Bear

Sloth Bear

The sloth bear , also known as the labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bear found wild within the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution...

, Gaur

Gaur

The gaur , also called Indian bison, is a large bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986 as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70% over the last three generations...

, Manjampatti White Bison

Manjampatti White Bison

Manjampatti white bison are a type of gaur, occasionally seen in the Manjampatti Valley, a protected area at the eastern end of Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, South India. These gaur are notable for their distinctive ash-grey color as...

, Wild Boar, Lion-tailed Macaque

Lion-tailed Macaque

The lion-tailed macaque is an Old World monkey that is endemic to the Western Ghats of South India.-Physical Characteristics:...

, Nilgiri Langur

Nilgiri Langur

The Nilgiri langur is a lutung found in the Nilgiri Hills of the Western Ghats in South India. Its range also includes Kodagu in Karnataka,Kodayar Hills in Tamil Nadu and many other hilly areas in Kerala and Tamil nadu. This primate has glossy black fur on its body and golden brown fur on its head...

, Common Langur, Bonnet Macaque

Bonnet Macaque

The bonnet macaque is a macaque endemic to southern India. Its distribution is limited by the Indian Ocean on three sides and the Godavari and Tapti Rivers along with a related competing species of rhesus macaque in the north....

, Nilgiri Tahr

Nilgiri Tahr

The Nilgiri Tahr, Nilgiritragus hylocrius, known locally as the Nilgiri Ibex or simply Ibex, is an ungulate that is endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western Ghats in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in southern India. It is the state animal of Tamil Nadu...

, Four-horned antelope

Four-horned Antelope

The Four-horned Antelope , or Chousingha, is a small antelope found in open forest in India and Nepal. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Tetracerus.-Description:...

, Dhole

Dhole

The dhole is a species of canid native to South and Southeast Asia. It is the only extant member of the genus Cuon, which differs from Canis by the reduced number of molars and greater number of teats...

, Tree shrew, Sambar Deer

Sambar Deer

The Sambar ' is a large deer native to southern and southeast Asia. Although it primarily refers to R. unicolor, the name "Sambar" is also sometimes used to refer to the Philippine Deer and the Rusa Deer...

, Mouse Deer, Muntjac

Muntjac

Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....

, Jungle cat

Jungle Cat

The jungle cat is a medium-sized cat and considered the largest remaining species of the wild cat genus Felis. The species is also called the swamp lynx but is not closely related to the lynxes....

, Fishing cat

Fishing Cat

The Fishing Cat is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. In 2008, the IUCN classified the fishing cat as endangered since they are concentrated primarily in wetland habitats, which are increasingly being settled, degraded and converted...

, Leopard cat

Leopard Cat

The leopard cat is a small wild cat of South and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern by IUCN as it is widely distributed but threatened by habitat loss and hunting in parts of its range...

, Small Indian Civet

Small Indian Civet

The Small Indian Civet or Rasse is a species of civet found across south and South-east Asia as well as in the Indonesian archipelago. The Assamese name Johamaal refers to its glandular odour similar to a scented rice variety called Joha...

, Toddy cat, Asian Small Mongoose, blackbuck

Blackbuck

Blackbuck is a species of antelope native to the Indian subcontinent. Their range decreased sharply during the 20th century. Since 2003, the IUCN lists the species as near threatened....

, Chital

Chital

The chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...

, Striped hyena

Striped Hyena

The Striped Hyena is a species of true hyena native to North and East Africa, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Middle and Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent...

, Nilgiri Marten, Travancore Flying Squirrel, Grizzled Giant Squirrel

Grizzled Giant Squirrel

The grizzled giant squirrel is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India...

, Flying squirrel

Flying squirrel

Flying squirrels, scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini, are a tribe of 44 species of squirrels .- Description :...

, Three-striped palm squirrel

Indian Palm Squirrel

The Indian Palm Squirrel also known as Three-Striped Palm Squirrel, is a species of rodent in the Sciuridae family that can be easily domesticated and kept as pets. It is found naturally in India and Sri Lanka...

, Black-naped Hare, Grey slender loris, Indian Pangolin

Indian Pangolin

The Indian Pangolin or ”Scaly Ant-eater” is a pangolin that is found in the plains and hills of India, Sri Lanka,Nepal and some parts of Pakistan. It is not common anywhere in its range....

, Asian Small-Clawed Otter and Malabar Spiny Dormouse, Indian Fox, Indian Porcupine

Indian Porcupine

The Indian Crested Porcupine , or Indian Porcupine, is a member of the Old World porcupines. It is quite an adaptable rodent, found throughout southern Asia and the Middle East. It is tolerant of several different habitats: mountains, tropical and subtropical grasslands, scrublands, and forests...

, Smooth-Coated Otter

Smooth-coated Otter

The Smooth-coated Otter is a species of otter, the only extant representative of the genus Lutrogale. The species is found from southern Pakistan and parts of the India east to Southeast Asia, and there is a disjunct population in Iraq...

.

Birds

These include the Malabar Trogon

Malabar Trogon

The Malabar Trogon is a species of bird in the trogon family. It is found in the forests of Sri Lanka and peninsular India. In India it is mainly found in the Western Ghats, hill forests of central India and in parts of the Eastern Ghats...

, Malabar Pied Hornbill

Malabar Pied Hornbill

The Malabar Pied Hornbill is a hornbill. Hornbills are a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World....

, Nilgiri Wood-pigeon

Nilgiri Wood-pigeon

The Nilgiri Wood Pigeon is large pigeon found in the moist deciduous forests and sholas of the Western Ghats in southwestern India. They are mainly frugivorous and forage in the canopy of dense hill forests...

, Nilgiri Laughing Thrush

Rufous-breasted Laughingthrush

The Rufous-breasted, Black-chinned or Nilgiri Laughingthrush, Trochalopteron cachinnans, is a species of Laughingthrush endemic to Peninsular India.-Taxonomy:...

, Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...

, Bonellis Eagle, Dollarbird, Nilgiri Pipit

Nilgiri Pipit

The Nilgiri Pipit, Anthus nilghiriensis is a long near threatened bird species endemic to the Western Ghats in South India.It is closely associated with short montane grasslands interspersed with marshy grounds and small streams mostly in hill slopes above of Tamil Nadu and Kerala...

, Little Spiderhunter

Little Spiderhunter

The Little Spiderhunter is a species of long-billed nectar feeding bird in the Nectariniidae family found in the moist forests of South and Southeast Asia. Unlike typical sunbirds, males and females are very similar in plumage...

, White-bellied Shortwing

White-bellied Shortwing

The Nilgiri Blue Robin refers to a kind of bird in the Muscicapidae family endemic to the Shola forests of the higher hills of southern India, mainly north of the Palghat Gap. Both the White-bellied Blue Robin and this species were once treated as sub-species of a single species and in 2005 were...

, Little Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

The Little Ringed Plover is a small plover. Adults have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes with white above and a short dark bill...

, Indian Swiftlet

Indian Swiftlet

The Indian Swiftlet, or Indian Edible-nest Swiftlet, Aerodramus unicolor, is a small swift. It is a common resident colonial breeder in the hills of Sri Lanka and south west India.The half-cup nest is built on a vertical surface, often in a cave...

, White-bellied Treepie

White-bellied Treepie

The White-bellied Treepie is a bird of the crow family endemic to the forests of southern India. They overlap in distribution in some areas with the Rufous Treepie but are easily to tell apart both from appearance and call....

, White-bellied Woodpecker

White-bellied Woodpecker

The White-bellied Woodpecker is found in evergreen forests of tropical Asia. It has 14 subspecies, part of a complex including the Andaman Woodpecker . Many island forms are endangered, some are extinct. Populations differ in the distribution and extent of white...

, Green Imperial Pigeon

Green Imperial Pigeon

The Green Imperial Pigeon is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in tropical southern Asia from India east to Indonesia. It has a number of subspecies, of which the distinctive Celebes form, Chestnut-naped Imperial Pigeon .This is a forest species; it builds a stick nest in a...

, Nilgiri Flycatcher

Nilgiri Flycatcher

The Nilgiri Flycatcher is an Old World flycatcher with a very restricted range in the hills of southern India. It has a colour similar to that of the Verditer Flycatcher which is a winter visitor to the Nilgiris but lacks the dark lores of that species...

, Great Eared Nightjar, Grey Junglefowl

Grey Junglefowl

The Grey Junglefowl , also known as Sonnerat's Junglefowl, is a wild relative of domestic fowl that is endemic to India. This species is found mainly in peninsular India and where it overlaps with the distribution of the Red Junglefowl, it is known to form hybrids...

, Heart-spotted Woodpecker

Heart-spotted Woodpecker

The Heart-spotted Woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family. They have a contrasting black and white pattern, a distinctively stubby body with a large wedge-shaped head making them easy to identify while their frequent calling make them easy to detect as they forage for...

, Peafowl

Peafowl

Peafowl are two Asiatic species of flying birds in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae, best known for the male's extravagant eye-spotted tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen, and the offspring peachicks. The adult female...

, Pompadour Green Pigeon

Pompadour Green Pigeon

The Pompadour Green Pigeon is a pigeon in the genus Treron. It is widespread in forests of southern and southeast Asia...

, Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

The Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola, is a small wader. This Eurasian species is the smallest of the shanks, which are mid-sized long-legged waders of the family Scolopacidae.- Description and systematics :...

, Vernal Hanging Parrot

Vernal Hanging Parrot

The Vernal Hanging Parrot is a small parrot which is a resident breeder from India , Nepal and some other areas of Southeast Asia. In Sri Lanka, it is replaced by the very similar endemic Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, . It undergoes local movements, driven mainly by the availability of the fruit,...

, Malabar Parakeet

Malabar Parakeet

The Malabar Parakeet also known as the Blue-winged Parakeet, is a species of parakeet endemic to the Western Ghats of southern India. Found in small flocks, they fly rapidly in forest clearings while making screeching calls that differ from those of other parakeet species within their distribution...

, White-browed Bulbul

White-browed Bulbul

The White-browed Bulbul is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in Sri Lanka and peninsular India. Largely olive coloured above with whitish underparts, it has a pale supercilium and a yellow vent...

, Stork-billed Kingfisher

Stork-billed Kingfisher

The Stork-billed Kingfisher, Pelargopsis capensis , is a tree kingfisher which is widely but sparsely distributed in the tropical Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia. This kingfisher is essentially resident throughout its range.This is a very large...

, Grey-headed Fish-Eagle, Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Black-and-orange Flycatcher

Black-and-orange Flycatcher

The Black-and-orange Flycatcher is a species of flycatcher endemic to the central and southern Western Ghats, the Nilgiris and Palni hill ranges in southern India...

, Brown-headed Barbet

Brown-headed Barbet

The Brown-headed Barbet or Large Green Barbet is an Asian barbet. Barbets and toucans are a group of near passerine birds with a worldwide tropical distribution. The barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills.The Brown-headed Barbet is a resident breeder in India and...

, Blue-bearded Bee-eater

Blue-bearded Bee-eater

The Blue-bearded Bee-eater Nyctyornis athertoni is a large species of bee-eater found in South Asia. This species is found in openings in patches of dense forest. It is found in the Malayan region and also extends into the Western Ghats in southwestern India. The blue feathers of its throat are...

, Broad-tailed Grassbird

Broad-tailed Grassbird

The Broad-tailed Grassbird is a species of Old World warbler in the Locustellidae family. It is endemic to the Western Ghats of India with the possibility of occurrence in Sri Lanka. A small, mostly brown bird, it has a broad rounded and graduated tail...

, Cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

, Darter

Darter

The darters or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. The term "snakebird" is usually used without any additions to...

, Heron

Heron

The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....

, Egret

Egret

An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...

, Open-billed Stork

Asian Openbill Stork

The Asian Openbill or Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Southeast Asia....

, Spoonbill

Spoonbill

Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...

 and White Ibis

Black-headed Ibis

The Black-headed Ibis or Oriental White Ibis is a species of wading bird of the ibis family Threskiornithidae which breeds in South Asia and Southeast Asia from Pakistan to India, Sri Lanka east up to Japan...

, Little Grebe

Little Grebe

The Little Grebe , also known as Dabchick, member of the grebe family of water birds. At 23 to 29 cm in length it is the smallest European member of its family. It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.-Description:The Little Grebe is a small water bird with a pointed...

, Indian Moorhen, Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

The Black-winged Stilt or Common Stilt is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family . Opinions differ as to whether the birds treated under the scientific name H. himantopus ought to be treated as a single species and if not, how many species to recognize...

, a few migratory duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

 and occasionally Grey Pelican.

Marine species

These include the Dugong

Dugong

The dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...

, Turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

, Dolphin

Dolphin

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...

 and Balanoglossus

Balanoglossus

Balanoglossus is an ocean-dwelling acorn worm genus of great zoological interest because, being a Hemichordate, it is an "evolutionary link" between invertebrates and vertebrates...

.

Insects

Butterflies: Southern Birdwing, Common Rose, Crimson Rose, Common Bluebottle, Common Jay, Tailed Jay, Spot Swordtail, Five-bar Swordtail, Common Mime, Lime, Malabar Banded Swallowtail, Malabar Raven, Red Helen, Common Mormon, Blue Mormon, Paris Peacock, Malabar Banded Peacock, Common Banded Peacock, Common Emigrant, Mottled Emigrant, Small Grass Yellow, Common Grass Yellow, Common Jezebel, Psyche, Common Gull

Common Gull

The Common Gull or Mew Gull Larus canus is a medium-sized gull which breeds in northern Asia, northern Europe and northwestern North America. It migrates further south in winter...

, Lesser Gull, Pioneer Or Caper White

Caper White

The Caper Whites are the butterflies in the genus Belenois.Caper White is also used to refer to several single species of butterfly:* Belenois aurota — native to Africa and South Asia* Belenois java — native to Southeast Asia and Australia...

, Plain Puffin, Chocolate Albatross, Common Albatross, Lesser Albatross, Small Orange Tip

Colotis etrida

Small Orange-Tip , Colotis etrida is a small butterfly of the Family Pieridae, that is, the Yellows and Whites, which is found in India.-Description:...

, White Orange Tip, Yellow Orange Tip, Common Wanderer, Great Orange Tip

Reptiles

Mugger crocodile

Mugger Crocodile

The mugger crocodile , also called the Indian, Indus, Persian, or marsh crocodile, is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding countries...

, King Cobra

King Cobra

The king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake, with a length up to 5.6 m . This species, which preys chiefly on other snakes, is found predominantly in forests from India through Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Indonesia...

, Bamboo Pit Viper, Indian Python

Indian Python

Python molurus is a large nonvenomous python species found in many tropic and subtropic areas of Southern and Southeast Asia. It is known by the common names Indian python, black-tailed python, and Indian rock python. Two subspecies are currently recognized: the nominate subspecies and the Burmese...

, Travancore Tortoise, Spectacled Cobra, Common Krait

Common Krait

The common krait is a species of genus Bungarus found in the jungles of the Indian subcontinent. It is a member of the "big four", species inflicting the most snakebites in India....

, Common Green Whip Snake

Ahaetulla nasuta

The Green vine snake , is a slender green tree snake found in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.-Description:...

, Russell's Kukri, Common Indian Monitor, Indian Chameleon, Oriental Garden Lizard, South Indian Flying Lizard, Olive Ridley Turtle, Cochin Forest Cane Turtle, Indian Black Turtle, Russell's Viper, various species of skinks and geckos.

Amphibians

Large Wrinkled Frog

Nyctibatrachus major

Nyctibatrachus major is a species of frog in the Ranidae family. Its English names are Malabar night frog, large wrinkled frog and Boulenger's narrow-eyed frog -Geographic range:...

, Malabar black narrow mouthed frog

Melanobatrachus indicus

Melanobatrachus indicus is a species of narrow-mouthed frog endemic to southern Western Ghats of India. It is currently known from Kalakad, Agasthyamala Hills, Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, and the Indira Gandhi National Park in the Anaimalai Hills....

, Kerala Warty Frog, Pigmy Wrinkled Frog

Nyctibatrachus beddomii

Nyctibatrachus beddomii is a species of frog in the Ranidae family. The epithet or specific name, beddomii, honors Colonel Richard Henry Beddome , British naturalist and military officer.-Habitat:...

, Burrowing Frog