River water quality is vital to life, but anthropogenic activities have caused significant degradation, threatening aquatic ecosystems and clean water supplies. Although bioindicators have long been used to monitor river health, there has been no bibliometric review to analyze trends and research gaps in this field. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by conducting a bibliometric analysis of publications on animals as bioindicators of river water quality. The method used is a bibliometric review using data from the Scopus database (2020–2024), analyzed using VOSviewer to visualize the co-occurrence of keywords, as well as a descriptive analysis of publication trends, journals, and fields of study. The results show a significant increase in publications since 2020, with Ecological Indicators and Science of the Total Environment as the leading journals, and Environmental Science as the dominant field of study. Co-occurrence analysis identified three main research clusters: ecology and communities, physiological responses to pollutants, and heavy metal contamination. In conclusion, the use of animals as bioindicators has a strong theoretical basis and offers an integrated approach to water management such as river. Further research is recommended to focus on developing more sensitive methods and toxicity studies to provide more accurate and actionable information.