As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread globally, its genome undergoes ongoing mutations and evolutions, giving rise to different strains such as α, β, γ, δ, etc. Therefore, continuously development of drugs and vaccines targeting different strains becomes pivotal in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Constructing animal models of SARS-CoV-2 not only enables studying the pathogenesis of the virus but also stands as a crucial means for evaluating the efficacy of drugs and vaccines related to SARS-CoV-2. However, commonly used animal models such as mice exhibit limited susceptibility to wild-type SARS-CoV-2, underscoring the urgent need for animal models that can be infected with the novel coronavirus and better simulating human pathological and physiological conditions. This review summarizes the animal models used for studying SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission, as well as their progress in characterizing the viral immunopathology.