Animal crate

This Animal Crate has Ellie the Elephant inside.

An Animal Crate is a box that Animal Buddies are stored in before being released by the Kongs, although some come in Animal Barrels. When leaped on, the box breaks, exposing the buddy. The buddy inside can be identified by the image on the side of the box.

While Animal Crates appear in Donkey Kong Land, they do not appear at all in Donkey Kong Land 2 or Donkey Kong Land III. This is most likely because in the latter two games, most Animal Buddies have special moves that they didn't have in DKL1 (for example, Rambi can charge), which requires an extra button (Select). Due to the limited amount of buttons on the Game Boy, this would leave no buttons to dismount from an animal.

In Donkey Kong 64 Animal Crates act more like Animal Barrels, transforming a Kong into an Animal Buddy instead of just allowing them to ride one.

In Donkey Kong Country Returns, Animal Crates are bigger and look different.