Animal Names That Will Pique Your Child's Curiosity

Aardvark Parrot Animal Names Although this medium-sized African mammal likes to dig and burrow out of sight and only comes out at night, he always has his name called first by the teacher. Names are often organized (especially by teachers!) by where their first letters come in the alphabet. Not too many names start with an "A" with another "a" right after it. Imagine if his name were Aaron the Aardvark. This talking bird might be the only animal on our list that can say his own name, but does he really know what it means? "Parrot" is what we call this feathered fast-mouth, but it's also a verb meaning "to repeat or imitate without thought on understanding that will pique your child's curiosity! Giraffe In the family of languages, English is the really annoying brother who's always borrowing other languages' words without asking, and then messing them up when it uses them. If you think "giraffe" sounds a little like "latte" or "pizza, it might be because English borrowed all these words from its sister, Italian. Without her permission. Rhinoceros Mandrill Puma concolor This horned animal has a name that's fun to say, but its meaning is downright funny. Lots of words in English come from words in Greek, and rhinos is Greek for... nose! So a rhinoceros is This is the Latin name scientists give to the big cat that prowls around much of America. What's it called, you ask? This animal has dozens of local Literally, "a man-sized drill" (a drill is a type of baboon from West Africa), it's easy to imagine how the first English speakers to see this animal gave it its name: "By George, that drill's the size of a man! I say, what should we call it?" What would they have called an incredibly small baboon? Maybe a mousedrill or a flydrill or an amoebadrill.. names: what's a mountain lion in California is a really a nose monster, and when you look at one it's not hard to see why they decided to call cougar in Washington State and a panther in Florida, but they're all the same species. What's this animal called where you come from? it that. Dictionary.com