Animals are still probably the most popular thing to fold with paper. This post we’ll be looking at a wide variety of different origami animals. There isn’t really a theme here just that they’re all animals and they look great.

First up is this absolutely adorable red panda from one of the best animal designers, Quentin Trollip.

Red Panda
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12043525@N04/4848086895

Red Panda, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Diagrams available in Origami Works of Quentin Trollip

 

Here’s a fantastic rhino design by Terry Nicolas.

Bogota Rhino
https://www.flickr.com/photos/79606072@N00/14221430174

Bogota Rhino, Designed and Folded by Terry Nicolas

Instructions not available

 

This platypus looks awesome and the whole overall photo/scene looks even better.

Platypus
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcolman/27608561323

Platypus, Designed by Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez

Crease pattern available from Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez’s Flickr

 

Hoang Tien Quyet designed what’s probably the most elegant looking origami horse. I quite like how you end up with different colours for the body and the mane and tail.

Horse
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42618819@N03/6340287131

Horse, Designed by Hoang Tien Quyet and Folded by DebugMode

Diagrams available in VOG: 50 Hours of Origami+

 

Here’s a quite beautiful looking paper elephant. The colour change on the tusks is really great.

Elephant
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pere-olivella/29247626836

Elephant, Designed by Artur Biernacki and Folded by Pere Olivella

Diagrams available in Drawing Origami 2

 

This Jerboa is a really awesome and cute little design.

Jerboa
https://www.flickr.com/photos/84138735@N00/29848989875

Jerboa, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu

Diagrams available in VOG 2: Origami.vn

Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook

 

I especially like the little feet on this llama.

Llama
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexkrup/29735273776

Llama, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Alexander Krupnikov

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 19th Convention Book

 

This deer is especially majestic looking.

Red Deer
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edg82/24944584612

Red Deer, Designed and Folded by Edgar

Crease pattern available from Edgar’s Flickr

 

This Mandrill is folded from 11 sheets of paper and the different colours make it look really realistic and awesome.

Mandrill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kobashi_san/30354259505

Mandrill, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Instructions not available

 

Here’s an absolutely adorable little racoon dog design by Satoshi Kamiya.

Racoon Dogs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128874294@N04/24065273411

Racoon Dog, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by J.W Park

Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2, 2002 – 2009

 

This is one of the best porcupines I’ve seen. I love the individual spikes and I’m pretty sure everything is folded from a single sheet of paper.

Porcupine
https://www.flickr.com/photos/plieurfou/22764114128

Porcupine, Designed and Folded by Eric Vigier

Instructions not available

 

Beth Johnson is really great at designing spiral patterns and I love how she incorporated the spiral into the tail of this squirrel.

Squirrel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bethorigami/31058547895

Squirrel and Acorn both Designed and Folded by Beth Johnson

Squirrel instructions not available

Acorn tutorial available from Beth Johnson’s Flickr

 

Here’s a beautiful maned wolf photographed out in the wild.

Maned Wolf
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcolman/30325865264

Maned Wolf, Designed by Taiga Yamamoto and Folded by P. Colman

Crease pattern available from Taiga Yamamoto’s Twitter

 

I absolutely love this photo. The rabbit design is great and the way it’s jumping is too awesome.

Jumping Rabbit
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gen_hagiwara/31219364536

Rabbit, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara

Crease pattern available from Gen Hagiwara’s Flickr

 

This is a really simple goat design but it still looks really great.

Goat
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55687485@N06/21316137165/

Goat, Designed by Nguyễn Hùng Cường and Folded by Magali

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 21st Convention Book

 

Otters are pretty much always cute, even when they’re made out of paper.

Sea Otter
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gen_hagiwara/21775524739

Sea Otter, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara

Diagrams available in Origami Tanteidan Magazine #159

 

Here’s a pair of cute little paper sheep. I especially like the colour change here and how you have black faces and feet with a white body.

Sheep
https://www.flickr.com/photos/49643647@N06/19304700189

Sheep, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Eyal

Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami

 

I saw this photo a long time ago and it’s still one of my favourite origami photos.

Donkey
https://www.flickr.com/photos/foldedwilderness/9783345922

Donkey, Designed by Román Díaz and Folded by Folded Wilderness

Diagrams available in Origami Essence

 

This whole scene is adorable. Even though those are bamboo leaves, not eucalyptus ones.

Koalas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/origami_vilkas/13044439634

Koalas Designed by Kunihiko Kasahara, Bamboo Leaves Designed by Hiroshi Kumasaka all Folded by Agnieska (Agne) Mackonyte

Koala diagrams available in Origami Omnibus

Bamboo diagrams available in NOA Magazine 257

 

This giraffe design is already really great and the custom pattern and colouring on the paper makes it look even better.

Giraffe
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96787913@N02/12628418135

Giraffe, Designed by Komatsu Hideo and Folded by CaptainMoon

Diagrams available in Works of Hideo Komatsu

 

I really like this bison design, something about it looks extra hairy if that makes any sense.

Bison
https://www.flickr.com/photos/origami-artist-galen/22045135465

Bison 2015 B, Designed and Folded by Shuki Kato

Crease pattern available from Shuki Kato’s Flickr

 

This pig is a relatively simple design but it just might be the most realistic looking origami pig I’ve ever seen.

Pig
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lovesong_ni0912/5963216030

Pig, Designed by Ronald Koh and Folded by Thong Nguyen Nguyen

Diagrams available in the AEP convention 2011 book

 

Our final model for this post is this adorable little paper hedgehog. It uses an origami tessellation to make it look kind of spikey.

Hedgehog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blunek/15011768684

Hedgehog, Designed by Javier Dominguez Perez and Folded by Blanka P (blunek)

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 20th Convention Book

 

That’s it for this post. If you like origami animals then be sure to check out all these amazing origami artists for more of their fantastic work.

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