Here's What All Those Snapchat Animals Mean

It's the most slow-moving week of the year, when people are home from work and school, and everyone's beyond bored. If you're looking to kill time on social media, you might have noticed a prevalence of animal emojis on Snapchat stories lately, particularly if you're following any teen girls. So what do animals mean on Snapchat? It's a code meant to confuse boys, because what else is there to do on winter break?

According to the social media website Wojdylo, it all started with young girls posting fruit emojis to signify their relationship status. A blueberry meant the user was single, cherries meant "in a relationship," and a few more were later introduced in order to capture the various nuances of teen romance. But a traitor soon shared a screen shot of the secret message revealing the code, so a new one had to be created. According to a Reddit thread run by confused boys targeted by the game, the girls then switched to candy bars, numbers, colors, makeup brands, and planets, but it seems like the one that's truly sticking is animals. The problem is that there are different keys out there, so nobody can agree on what each animal truly means. Really, they all just mean the same thing: "I'm bored."

According to various teens, the animals could represent relationship status, or how long the user has been in a relationship. Here are the possible meanings behind the animals:

• A panda or a horse means single.
• A whale means "it's complicated," and so does a monkey.
• An elephant means "f--k b-tches" (I'm sorry).
• A dolphin means "gets hoes" (so sorry).
• A bird means the user likes someone, or wants to marry their partner.
• A lion also means the user likes someone.
• A cow means "taken," or possibly in a relationship for one year.
• A cat also means "taken," at least for a few days.
• A pig could mean "talking to someone," or having been in a relationship for a few months, or "No one is cute at my school," which is way harsh.
• A rabbit means they've been in a relationship for a month, or that they can't find "the one."
• A dog means they don't want to commit, or they've been in a relationship for a day.
• An octopus means they don't know what their status is, which is sad.
• A mouse means they think they're the better half, or that they've been with someone for a week.
• A cheetah means they've been in a relationship for an unspecified amount of time.
• A frog means married, but let's be honest, no adult is playing this game.

If anyone in your Snapchat feed has posted any of the above animals, please send them down to the basement to reorganize all those boxes, or if they're in the Northeast, have them go shovel the driveway. There are much more productive things they could be doing right now. Like answering a badly worded riddle incorrectly and then changing their Facebook profile picture to a llama.