Writhedhornbill
Well-Known Member
Here's a link I've found about a new species of shrew!!!!
CBBC Newsround | Animals | Bizarre new creature discovered
CBBC Newsround | Animals | Bizarre new creature discovered
New shrew
- Thread starter Writhedhornbill
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I saw it this morning too (on the news bit of this forum at the bottom), but didn't bother posting. It appears to be about a third heavier than the next largest species (the golden-rumped)
"size of a cat", as posted in the linked article, is a bit of an exaggeration. looks more squirrel sized to me, as reported here in national geographic
Largest Elephant Shrew Discovered in Africa
one of my pet hates is bad common names and "elephant shrew" isn't popular with me since this family of animals are neither elephant nor shrew (oh and i know that DNA suggests an ancient ancestry with elephants but comeon'!!). so i'm glad to know scientists are pushing the african name of "sengi" as a modern alternative.
gery-headed sengi.
i like that.
Largest Elephant Shrew Discovered in Africa
one of my pet hates is bad common names and "elephant shrew" isn't popular with me since this family of animals are neither elephant nor shrew (oh and i know that DNA suggests an ancient ancestry with elephants but comeon'!!). so i'm glad to know scientists are pushing the african name of "sengi" as a modern alternative.
gery-headed sengi.
i like that.
Tupaia is sometimes used as a common name for tree shrews, but I suppose that would be confusing if used for tree shrews outside of the family tupaiidae.
Tupai is actually the Malay word for squirrel so isn't any more accurate than tree shrew
correct. tupai is the bahasa name for both kinds of animal, thus most people don't differentiate that theyare actually different. tree-shrews in malaysia/indonesia are squirrels!!
thats said i have some great footage i'll upload of the two animals associating together, and believe me, being such fast twitchy little things they had us confused. my friend said "look a tree-shrew" as a little creature scurried into the bushes. out it popped again and after a while i said, "no thats a squirrel" it left and returned and suddenly i started to doubt myself "no, no, its a shrew". eventually we realised there was both animals present.
there is actually a squirrel in borneo that has evolved to mimic a tree shrew, even sporting a long thin muzzle!
Sun Wukong
Well-Known Member
The German term is pretty nice: "Proboscis doggy" 
The family Macroscelididae is called "Proboscis Jumpers".
A similar species, the Black and Rufous Elephant Shrew, is currently kept in a few American zoos, f.e. the Philadelphia Zoo. Golden-rumped Elephant Shrews have been kept in Frankfurt Zoo-man, I'm so angry that I missed them there...
The family Macroscelididae is called "Proboscis Jumpers".A similar species, the Black and Rufous Elephant Shrew, is currently kept in a few American zoos, f.e. the Philadelphia Zoo. Golden-rumped Elephant Shrews have been kept in Frankfurt Zoo-man, I'm so angry that I missed them there...
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Sun Wukong
Well-Known Member
What language? And I still have Philly...
I like elephant-shrew and don't like sengi. I don't think the latter name provides any sort of information while "elephant-shrew" does (its shrewish, big, and has a 'trunk'). The introduction of sengi as a common name I think is more to do with being PC, using "native names" for species over long-established English names. This in itself isn't so wrong but it just seems unneccessary to try and dump perfectly serviceable names that even people with limited zoological knowledge can grasp the idea of. Its all a matter of opinion of course, and what an individual is used to; for example, I would never call a kokako a "blue-wattled crow" or a kakapo an "owl-parrot" but conversely I would never use piwakawaka over NZ fantail or titipounamu over rifleman.
If you have problems with elephant-shrew and tree shrew, surely that means you must also have issues with the common names of half the other animals on Earth...electric eel, red cod, brush turkey, superb blue wren, Komodo dragon, jellyfish (and sea wasp, sea nettle, bluebottle)...the list could go on and on. Where would you stop, and it leads on to names like emu and albatross. Should these also be changed?
I like all those names, but I abhor "Mexican walking fish". Its all each to his own.
I never thought about that Chlidonias. I say I don't mind sengi replacing elephant shrew, but I refuse to use Andean bear or Greater One-horned Rhinoceros or Bali starling or any other unnecessary PC changes. As you say, where will it end?
I am now going to refer to sengis as elephant shrews again, people like us all know that an elephant shrew is not a shrew, and people who don't know probably don't care either.
I don't think I've ever changed my mind so fast in my entire life.
I am now going to refer to sengis as elephant shrews again, people like us all know that an elephant shrew is not a shrew, and people who don't know probably don't care either.
I don't think I've ever changed my mind so fast in my entire life.
chlidonias, i don't agree that in the case of sengi's, it has to do with a more PC attitude of giving animals new common names in native tongue. i think iin this case its about giving a group of animals with no affinities to shrews whatsoever, the distinction they deserve as their own type of animal and at the same time avoiding any confusion. certainly however, in some instances political correctness does come into play (tenkile's and dingiso's were named as such by flannery as he disliked that no species had its native name utilised). i agree that "tenkile" is a much more flattering and fair name than "scott's tree-kangaroo" (since people knew of tenkile long before scott came along) but i'm not so keen on the descriptive suffix being dropped. for the sake of continuity and understanding i would prefer we call, for example, "tenkile", "tenkile tree-kangaroo's". same goes for dingiso and "siamangs". shouldn't they be called "siamang gibbons?" (interestingly however "siamang" doesn't refer to that species in particular and just means "gibbon" in bahasa. as does "rusa" just mean "deer" and not exclusively the animal we call rusa deer).
and yes, i also prefer to refer to jellyfish as the more modern name of "jellies" and "starfish" as "seastars". it makes much better sense yet holds onto an element of its original name. komodo monitor is correct by me (especially since "dragons" represent a distinctly different family of lizards), but i understand the word "dragon" will be difficult to drop. maybe "komodo dragon monitor" is a good compromise?
emu and albatross however? these are distinct families with distinct common names and no lack of continuity amongst that family. therefore i fail to see how they fit in as examples of animals in which name changes be proposed.
in the end dude, you kinda called me on the inability to draw a clear line without renaming half the world's fauna, but you yourself admitted to having no strict rulings yourself. you uses politically correct maori names for some birds but not others and have your own pet hates for certain common names such as "walking fish".
and yes, i also prefer to refer to jellyfish as the more modern name of "jellies" and "starfish" as "seastars". it makes much better sense yet holds onto an element of its original name. komodo monitor is correct by me (especially since "dragons" represent a distinctly different family of lizards), but i understand the word "dragon" will be difficult to drop. maybe "komodo dragon monitor" is a good compromise?
emu and albatross however? these are distinct families with distinct common names and no lack of continuity amongst that family. therefore i fail to see how they fit in as examples of animals in which name changes be proposed.
in the end dude, you kinda called me on the inability to draw a clear line without renaming half the world's fauna, but you yourself admitted to having no strict rulings yourself. you uses politically correct maori names for some birds but not others and have your own pet hates for certain common names such as "walking fish".
that was pretty much my point. There is no consistancy in the common names of animals, no matter what anyone may desire.
ps, as for emu and albatross, they can be thought of as the continuation of changing names because they do not refer to the animal's relationships (as elephant shrew is not a shrew). Emu is derived from Portuguese ema, which means "crane" (and was transferred to Australia via the rheas of South America); albatross is derived from Portuguese alcatraz "pelican". As emus are not cranes and albatrosses are not pelicans, these derivations are obviously inappropriate and should be replaced with a native Aboriginal name for the emu, and who knows what for the albatrosses (maybe "giant tubenoses"). Yes its exceedingly silly, but if common names are changed for relationships or PC reasons, then it needs to be a far-reaching decision encompassing all species
[I'm just being ridiculously pedantic now of course, so I'll just stop typing]
lol, I just saw our newest member as of now, is called pateke -- which is the PC Maori name for the brown teal
ahhhhhh (re; emu and albatross) now i get ya!
yes. agreed you can't draw a proper line since in the names are just made up sounds now arn't they? still being the pedant that i am i like continuity amongst common names for members of the same families and genus'.
and just for fun heres some of my pet hates....
that the name bonabo fails to mention that they are indeed a chimpanzee.
there are not four species of non-human great ape. there are six. we call both species of gorilla "gorillas" and both orangutans "orangutans" but despite both chimps belonging to the same genus, one is a bonabo and the other a chimpanzee. *shakes head*
and on the same note they are not "western lowland gorillas". instead they are "lowland western gorillas". since western gorilla is the name of the species. by english rules of language we should tack the subpecies part at the beginning. "cross river gorillas" likewise fails to mention that the subspecies belongs to the western gorilla species. thus, they should be called "cross river western gorilla"...
i don't like that sumatran rhino come from places other than sumatra (same for the javan), but "asiatic two-horned rhino" and "hairy rhinoceros" just don't have the same ring to it do they!
bah!! its all a bit confusing and there are discrepancies everywhere, but i will endevour to change them, one by one. and new on my list, like it or not chlidonias, is "sengi"...
yes. agreed you can't draw a proper line since in the names are just made up sounds now arn't they? still being the pedant that i am i like continuity amongst common names for members of the same families and genus'.
and just for fun heres some of my pet hates....
that the name bonabo fails to mention that they are indeed a chimpanzee.
there are not four species of non-human great ape. there are six. we call both species of gorilla "gorillas" and both orangutans "orangutans" but despite both chimps belonging to the same genus, one is a bonabo and the other a chimpanzee. *shakes head*
and on the same note they are not "western lowland gorillas". instead they are "lowland western gorillas". since western gorilla is the name of the species. by english rules of language we should tack the subpecies part at the beginning. "cross river gorillas" likewise fails to mention that the subspecies belongs to the western gorilla species. thus, they should be called "cross river western gorilla"...
i don't like that sumatran rhino come from places other than sumatra (same for the javan), but "asiatic two-horned rhino" and "hairy rhinoceros" just don't have the same ring to it do they!
bah!! its all a bit confusing and there are discrepancies everywhere, but i will endevour to change them, one by one. and new on my list, like it or not chlidonias, is "sengi"...