What Animal Is Arthur? Every Character’s Animal Explained

The most-asked question about this show has a one-word answer: what animal is Arthur? He is an aardvark. B

ut that is only the start, because every kid in Elwood City is a specific, deliberately chosen animal, and the designs rarely make it obvious.

This is the full guide to the Arthur characters and exactly what animal each one is, corrections included, since the show has a long history of confusing even its own network.

Arthur ran on PBS from 1996 to 2022, built from Marc Brown’s picture books, and it shaped a lot of young viewers along the way.

Is Arthur an Aardvark or an Anteater?

So, what animal is Arthur, exactly? He is an aardvark, not an anteater, and the mix-up is fair enough, both have long snouts and eat ants and termites.

The difference is real, though. Aardvarks are nocturnal, burrowing mammals native to Africa, known for powerful digging, while anteaters live in Central and South America and belong to an entirely different family.

Marc Brown first drew Arthur for the 1976 picture book Arthur’s Nose, and although the character’s snout shrank so much over the years that the Reads barely resemble a real aardvark, the species never changed.

His prominent front teeth put him in plenty of company with other buck-toothed cartoon characters.

What Animal Is Each Arthur Character? The Full List

Once you know what animal is Arthur, the natural next question is what all his friends are. Here are the main Arthur characters, each paired with the animal the show gives them:

Even viewers who can answer what animal is Arthur tend to trip on these two. The Brain is a bear, not the aardvark his design suggests, and Prunella is a poodle, not the rat she is so often labeled.

That second one is not your fault: PBS itself called Prunella a rat in 2011 before Marc Brown corrected the record in 2013.

For the deepest cuts, the full list of Arthur characters runs to hundreds.

The Read Family Are Aardvarks

Start with the family that kicks off the whole what animal is Arthur debate in the first place.

Arthur Read is an aardvark. The bespectacled eight-year-old at the center of it all, Arthur is the everykid: he juggles bullies, friendship spats, and little-sister chaos, and lands a tidy lesson most episodes. He is the positive, book-loving role model the whole series is built around.

Dora Winifred “D.W.” Read is an aardvark. Arthur’s younger sister is curious, blunt, and gloriously bossy, the four-going-on-five-year-old who says the quiet part out loud. Like the entire Read family, including baby Kate and their parents, she is an aardvark, even if none of them look much like one.

Arthur’s Friends and Classmates

The rest of the core Arthur characters cover most of a petting zoo:

Buster Baxter is a rabbit. Arthur’s bespectacled closest friend is a curious, food-loving optimist who is always up for an adventure or a snack. He is close with his mom and grandparents, and his open-minded appetite quietly nudges kids to try new things.

Francine Frensky is a monkey. Athletic, competitive, and never shy about speaking her mind, Francine is one of the show’s strongest personalities and a real equal to Arthur rather than a sidekick. Her whole family, including her dad Oliver, are monkeys.

Muffy Crosswire is a monkey. The daughter of a wealthy car dealer, Muffy lives large, private bowling alley, designer everything, and a serious shopaholic streak, and she can be a snob. Underneath it she has a kind streak and shows up for her friends, and like Francine she is a monkey.

Alan “the Brain” Powers is a bear. The smartest kid in Mr. Ratburn’s class, Brain lives for math, science, and chess, and his parents run an ice cream shop. His intelligence does not spare him the usual insecurities, which is a big part of why he is easy to like. His design fools people into guessing aardvark, but he is a bear.

Binky Barnes is a bulldog. The class tough guy who picks on Arthur and his friends, Binky spends the series learning to manage his temper and own his mistakes. He is softer than he lets on, with a sensitive streak the show loves to reveal.

Sue Ellen Armstrong is a cat. A well-traveled transfer student whose diplomat family has lived all over the world, Sue Ellen is worldly, martial-arts-trained, and a committed environmentalist. She was one of the few kids unafraid to stand up to Binky.

Fern Walters is a dog. Quiet, bookish, and armed with an advanced vocabulary, Fern is the friend most likely to crack the mystery or drop a word nobody else knows. She turns up throughout the series as part of the core class.

George Lundgren is a moose. A gentle, science-loving tinkerer, George is a quieter member of the group, often found with a gadget or his ventriloquist dummy, Wally. He is a minor player, but a consistently sweet one.

Prunella Deegan is a poodle. Here is the one that trips everyone up. For years PBS listed Prunella as a rat, and plenty of fan pages still do, but in 2013 creator Marc Brown settled it: she is a poodle. She is a fourth-grader who loves reading, yoga, and anything spooky or psychic.

The Tibble Twins, Timmy and Tommy, are bears. These four-year-old identical troublemakers live with their grandmother and terrorize D.W.’s preschool with cheerful mischief. Newer Arthur books confirm the twins as bears, even if their design keeps fans guessing.

The Grown-Ups of Elwood City

Mr. Nigel Ratburn is a rat. Arthur’s demanding third-grade teacher is, fittingly, the one clearly rodent character in the cast; Marc Brown has confirmed Ratburn is the show’s only rat.

Off the clock he is a gourmet cook and a musician, and the 2019 episode “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” made him a married man.

That rounds out the main Arthur characters, the whole Elwood City menagerie, from a family of aardvarks to a single lonely moose.

Part of what makes Arthur fun is that it never explains its own rules: ordinary animals exist too, Arthur even has a pet dog named Pal, so nobody blinks when a bulldog and a rabbit share a lunch table.

Which of the Arthur characters surprised you most, the poodle, the bear, or the fact that the answer to what animal is Arthur was an aardvark all along?

Let me know in the comments.