it is in fact the narrow-striped mongoose (Mungotictis decemlineata) from Madagascar. Part of the PC nonsense sweeping the world in the last decade is that animals must now be known only by their local names and under no circumstances must any intelligible English name be used. It avoids confusion don't you know.
So three of the standard zoo residents now have to be Tembo, Simba and N'Gi. Come on...... In English, this is a Narrow-striped Mongoose. In Malagasy, it's a Boky Boky.
So three of the standard zoo residents now have to be Tembo, Simba and N'Gi. Come on...... In English, this is a Narrow-striped Mongoose. In Malagasy, it's a Boky Boky.
It's much worse than that - do you know how many languages there are in Africa? Simba is Kiswahili, but in west African languages the equivalent is dzata or gyata or something completely different and as for Xhoisan click speech . . .
There's nothing wrong with any of these names individually, but if there's any doubt I think we ought to stay with the one that's least confusing - my policy is to use the one on the ISIS website.
it is in fact the narrow-striped mongoose (Mungotictis decemlineata) from Madagascar. Part of the PC nonsense sweeping the world in the last decade is that animals must now be known only by their local names and under no circumstances must any intelligible English name be used. It avoids confusion don't you know.
Mungotictis used to be classified as a mongoose in the family Herpestidae, but it has become clear that all the Malagasy carnivores are separate from Herpestidae and Viverridae, and belong in their own family, Eupleridae. Any that used 'mongoose' or 'civet' in their name are now not absolutely strictly if we're going to be even more pedantic than I would normally be quite accurate. So we see the appearance of 'boky' and 'vontsira' and so on.
Of course, this fall down as soon as you mention cuttlefish, mountain chickens, even sea lions. But hey, it still happens.
Mungotictis used to be classified as a mongoose in the family Herpestidae, but it has become clear that all the Malagasy carnivores are separate from Herpestidae and Viverridae, and belong in their own family, Eupleridae. Any that used 'mongoose' or 'civet' in their name are now not absolutely strictly if we're going to be even more pedantic than I would normally be quite accurate. So we see the appearance of 'boky' and 'vontsira' and so on.
Of course, this fall down as soon as you mention cuttlefish, mountain chickens, even sea lions. But hey, it still happens.
I knew someone would say something about Madagascan mongooses/civets not really being true mongooses/civets (and I knew it would be Maguari ) but it is just a common name after all. I don't actually have a problem with a native name being used as the common English name of course because heaps of NZ birds have the Maori name as their sole or primary common name (e.g. takahe, kakapo, kiwi, etc) but I do object [mildly] when its done primarily for PC reasons (which is also done in NZ, as per, for example, the NZ fantail being rebranded as piwakawaka or NZ falcon as karearea) and where it introduces confusion (witness elephant shrew being renamed sengi or the present case of the narrow-striped mongoose). In such cases even if the usual name is strictly-speaking incorrect (elephant shrews not really being shrews) at least it still gives information as to what the animal is most like (i.e. a mega-sized shrew), whereas sengi tells you absolutely nothing. Actually we already had this debate somewhere in the past....
Nick Garbutt's excellent book 'Mammals of Madagascar' lists 3 Malagasy names for this species: Boky-Boky, Boki-Boki & Teraboky - take your pick.
I have to say, I find the never-ending splitting of species/ sub-species based on genetics equally annoying. In many cases it is justified, it many more it is just taxonomists wishing to make a name for themselves.
