Animal Barrel
An Animal Barrel is a barrel with a picture of an Animal Buddy painted onto the side. Instead of containing a Buddy, like Animal Crates, this barrel, if jumped into, will turn a Kong into a different animal. If the morph occurs, any DK Barrels hit will supply an extra Hit Point, instead of releasing another animal. However, an Animal Buddy can only have two Hit Points at one time. The Animal Buddy transform back into the Kongs when it reaches a No Animal Sign.
Animal Barrels first appeared in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and appeared throughout the series until Donkey Kong 64. In this game, Animal Barrels were replaced by Animal Crates (previously the Animal Crate simply released an Animal Buddy, instead of transforming the Kongs into an Animal Buddy).