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#17483 01/29/01 02:21 AM
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A friend and I were recently discussing a certain dachshund of our acquaintance, when I began to wonder what kind of hound, exactly, a dachs hound was. So, consulting my dictionary, I learned that "dachs" refers to badgers, and that dachshunds were used to hunt badgers. Upon reading this information aloud to my friend, we were simultaneously struck by the same thought: Ha ha ha! Badger hound? More like badger lunch!

We speculate that dachshunds are probably well suited to hunting European (also in Asia) badgers, Meles meles, but can't envision a small dog readily taking on the American version, Taxidea taxus. American badgers are sizable, going 2.5 feet in length, and mean.

And the point of this ramble is: "badger" is one of the many words which british immigrants applied to flora and fauna in North America which were only similar to the European species. And, my dictionary informs me that "wombat" and "bandicoot" are Australian versions of badgers, but without further elucidation.

What other animals and plants are known by the same name in the various English-speaking nations, but are not the same creature? What species are the same, but are known by different names?

Around here, a black-and-white member of the weasel family with an extraordinarily powerful stink gland is known as a "skunk," but I believe that in the southern states it is also called a "polecat." Those prickly animals are porcupines around here, but are called hedgehogs elsewhere (are they the same? merely related?) A groundhog is the same as a woodchuck. Why two names?

Have we a zoologist in our midst?



#17484 01/29/01 06:09 AM
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What other animals and plants are known by the same name in the various English-speaking nations, but are not the same creature?

That which we in NZ call flax ain't. That's also plumbing the depths of my botanical knowledge.


#17485 01/29/01 01:22 PM
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Those prickly animals are porcupines around here, but are called hedgehogs elsewhere (are they the same? merely related?)
________________________________________________________

I always thought that hedgehogs were small, brown and vaguely sweet, with spines of no more than about 2cm long. If found in your garden, then the correct protocol used to be to feed them on bread and milk. Also, they're sufficiently docile that you can pick them up and handle them (although, they're supposed to be rather flea-infested, so perhaps not such a good idea).

Porcupines I understood to be much larger, with very long quills, that they can bristle at you threateningly and even ? shoot at you. Decidedly undocile.


#17486 01/29/01 01:45 PM
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rkay, the porcupines I know definitely have longer quills than your hedgehogs. It seems to me that they are related but different. Porcupines, like most creatures confident of their defense, are not irascible but I think are less docile than hedgehogs. They cannot throw their quills. They will, however, strike at a threat with their tails, impaling the victim with nasty barbs which are very painful to get out (as more than one local dog can attest) and leave him looking like he's lost a fight with knitting needles.


#17487 01/29/01 01:58 PM
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rkay wrote : Porcupines I understood to be much larger, with very long quills, that they can bristle at you threateningly and even ? shoot at you. Decidedly undocile.
Ohmygoodness, porcupines seem to be getting a bad rap! They are indeed large and can shoot those long quills quite a distance.
(As anyone who has ever rushed their dog to the Vet to have the quills removed from the dog's curious nose can attest.)
How-some-ever, in general, porcupines are rather shy and tend to run away ... I have a porcupine who visits my yard occasionally on a summer evening and when I turn on the exterior lights "Pete the Porci" lumbers away!
If you persist in annoying them, porcupines give you warning. If come upon in the twilit woods, my little pal, Pete, sort of stands still to give you a chance to back off. (it is his living room after all.) But if you come upon a porcupine and annoy them they turn their back to you and ... LOOK OUT!
I'm sure any Zoologist can give you more scientific information but Pete and I have a modus vivendi that seems to work. Perhaps Pete is more used to having people invade his woodsy environs ???
wow


#17488 01/29/01 04:53 PM
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Porcupines in NY can't throw their quills-- and they are usually docile-- like a skunk try to avoid meeting people-- and they like to climb trees-- the one in the zoo hangs out on an upper limb of a tree-

I don't see skunks in my neighborhood-- (i used to see them in the Bronx) my neighborhood is suburban/small town-ish; with single house on a plot of land-- i am less than ½ mile from a large, "undeveloped" (read wilderness) park, and about 1 mile from coast (long island sound) There are still undeveloped lots in the area.

I have seen possum* (opossum) and raccoons in my yard, and in the park, a red fox (vixen). there are also red tailed hawks, and all sort of birds- ducks, geese, (not to many) swans, cormorants, and egrets- and once in while i have seen a quail..

the common small birds in NY are called "sparrows"-- but i am told they are not-- and i don't know the difference between a sparrow and a wren--and would use both words interchangeable to define small, grey song birds-- as do most in NY.

starlings are recognizable, and cardinal, oriels (well Baltimore oriels-- with their orange plumage--named for Lord Baltimore) and blue jays, and blue birds-- very different birds. I am not really a bird watcher-- but i sit in gazebo-- and see them--

* possums are US marsupials-- do you have possums in Australia? SA has an other marsupial--a sloth i think, and it might be found in souther/Mexico border states. Possums are found as far north as souther Maine-- WOW do you ever see?

and i second that hedgehogs are cute-- and silly--like gerbils-- they have teeth-- but little mouths, so unless you stick your pinky finger near their mouth they can't get mouth open big enough to really bite.

Snappers are common-- does anyone else have "snapping turtles?" they have sharp jaws, and when the close them hard, they make a snapping noise--a really loud noise! kids are warned at some lakes, not to dangle bare feet in the water-- since snapping turtles (about 8 inch long) are strong enough and aggressive enough to snap off toes!
Some times you'll see a little duckling with damage web feet bitten by a turtle-- or worse, see a duckling snapped and dragged under the water to be a lunch for a turtle.

I have never seen any other turtles in NYC-- but 25 miles away (state parks in lower parts of Adirondack's-- part of Appalachian mountains) have seen "box turtles" and other turtles.


#17489 01/31/01 01:25 PM
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This is kind of related...I just thought it was such a neat fact that everyone might appreciate...

I now live on the island of Newfoundland, and there are no snakes, skunks, or poison ivy on the island. Coming from the Prairies where there are scads of all those things, I find this VERY weird.

However, moose near the roads are a big problem. Their belly is just the height of a car windshield and people die every year on the highways here, after hitting a moose. They completely destroy cars. You're actually advised not to drive outside of the cities/towns at night for that reason. They're so dumb that they (apparently) just stand there, and then tend to run across the road, rather than away from it. (I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't seen a moose here, yet.) Apparently there are 100,000 moose on the island. When you consider that the human population is about 500,000 - WOW!

So this brings to mind, what's the difference between a moose and an elk? Name only? I looked it up online with Webster's and it said elk is European. It also says that some zoologists consider it to be the same species as the North American moose, or "wapiti". Now THERE'S a cool word I haven't heard recently.


#17490 01/31/01 01:29 PM
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A friend and I were recently discussing a certain dachshund of our acquaintance, when I began to wonder what kind of hound, exactly, a dachs hound was. So, consulting my dictionary, I learned that "dachs" refers to badgers, and that dachshunds were used to hunt badgers. Upon reading this information aloud to my friend, we were simultaneously struck by the same thought: Ha ha ha! Badger hound? More like badger lunch!

The dog poster at my vet's office indicated that their body shape was ideal for chasing animals into burrows - and if the British badgers are also smaller this makes sense. I looked it up on Webster's online and it concurred. However - I agree that they don't LOOK very fierce!


#17491 01/31/01 01:56 PM
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BAdgers? Badgers? We don't need no ...



TEd
#17492 01/31/01 05:43 PM
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Bean enthuses: Apparently there are 100,000 moose on the island. When you consider that the human population is about 500,000 - WOW!

CapK, polishing his fingernails on his shirt, replies:

In Zild there are

3.9 million humans
Approx. 40 million sheep (down from about 60 million a few years ago.
AND, wait for it, NINETY million opossums.

We're happy with the first statistic.
We're okay with the sheep - they're farm problems anyway.
We're miserable about the last one.

Since possums are an endangered species in their home country, Oz, I have long since advocated that every Australian coming here on business or on holiday should be forced to repatriate about 10,000 of the little sods on their way home.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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