This is the important bit. It's still Mungotictis decemlineata either way - scientific names may not quite be immutable, but they're a lot more universal.
(and I hope form the tone of my post it was clear I wasn't necessarily defending 'boky boky' - just filling out the reasons it would be used! Although I quite like the 'hybrid' name used in Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Narrow-striped Boky - removes the 'mongoose' bit without leaving the name unrecognisable. Still not sure I could use it without a touch of irony, however!)
Anyway, we're all making the massive assumption that newzooboy isn't Malagasy and just using the name he's always known it by!
EDIT: Actually, by the nature of common names (they differ from language to language), if this is a correct Malagasy common name, it is a correct common name! Maybe not the standard English common name, but quite valid.
Not to mention that Malagasy is a language "constructed" by mixing the around 10 major dialects on the island and you can bet that most of them have their own word for the "boky boky". So how do you decide which one to use?
indeed it was (I was actually going to make a comment on my earlier post apologising for the quote rendering all of your text in italics and thereby negating what you had italicised yourself )
Maguari said:
EDIT: Actually, by the nature of common names (they differ from language to language), if this is a correct Malagasy common name, it is a correct common name! Maybe not the standard English common name, but quite valid.
Great photo . Seems that now RSCC have 4 species of Eupleridae on show - also ring-tailed mongoose ( old name ) , fosa and fanaloka . The last is very exciting , I look forward to the first photos of it .
Wonder if the 3 recently arrived species were sourced from Madagascar or from existing captive stocks ( not that there are many , if any , fanaloka around ) .
