can we point o an animal and "what animal is this ? or which animal is this? which one is correct?

Question

I just wanted to know if its gramatically correct to say what animal is this? or which animal I this?

Answer 1

It is grammatically correct to ask either

"What animal is this?" or "Which animal is this?"

Generally, while teaching children, for instance, if you hold up a picture of an elephant, you would probably want to ask,

"What animal is this?"

If you had a poster of various mammals and pointed to each of them, you could use both constructions, such as

"What animal is this?"

And then, pointing to another,

"Which animal is this?"