I recently found a group of Western Red-backed Salamanders during a nature walk, and before I left, I couldn’t resist giving them names. It felt like a fun way to connect with the animals, even if just for a moment. I’m curious—do any of you name the animals you encounter during your observations? Maybe you’ve done it for certain species or just for the ones that stand out to you. I’d love to hear if anyone else does this, or if you prefer to keep it more scientific and leave the naming for fictional creatures!
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There was once a shamrock orbweaver that lived in our backyard for almost a month. We named her clover (because she was a shamrock orbweaver.)
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My brother named a few Eastern red-backed salamanders Betty Sue, and so now I call all red-backed salamanders Betty Sue. Also, I named a hairy woodpecker Harry and a female of the same species Harriet. (I also couldn’t resist naming the downy woodpeckers Downy and Downiet)
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there was a pair of house finches that came back to my porch every year, their names were Alexander and Leah. theres also a squirrel with a striped tail i call Maple, and if it counts i have a frog skeleton i found named Gerald :D
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Continuing the discussion from Weird nature habits?:
As I recall, numerous users piped in to confirm this was common practice for creatures one sees regularly. (Thank goodness.)
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There’s a blackbird with a distinct white patch that visits my yard that I call “old-man blackbird”
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I remember a silver gull that hung out in a beachside town where I used to live. This individual had only one leg but was very swift in snatching food that picnickers left unattended for a few seconds. Naturally we called it Long John Silver.
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not exactly, but all vaguely lizard-like animals are called “friend” by me and my wife every time we see one (its mostly the european salamanders, which we see most often, although several lizards have also been given the honorary title friend).
It has come to the point that whenever I come home from a walk where I have seen one such animal, I report to my wife I have seen a friend and she immediately know it wasn’t the human kind.
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Not really. But I know for a fact that all globular springtails are called Geronimo.
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I have a lot of ‘mates’ who get asked where are they going :’ ) I wish they could know that we don’t want to harm them.
Corvids get a much more egalitarian conversation, they’re geezers and know how to handle themselves.
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Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) · iNaturalist
This is Pileated Pete, the only pileated woodpecker that has ever come to my suet feeder. He rarely ever shows but I always need to stop and stare when he does. I mean, who doesn’t stop and stare when they see a pileated woodpecker?
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Yeah, I cuss at invasive ones.
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Our department occasionally gets asked about names of wildlife that we respond to, or do work with. Generally the rule is “We dont name wildlife, because it essentially makes them less wild”. I know of one specific example of that when a reporter asked about a “stumpy weka” at a specific lookout. The awnser was along those lines, so the reporter just chose a name on thier own, and reported it as such.
I used to name wildlife living at the same place as me, but generally I follow a similar rule. I dont name them specifically, as much as by thier shared common names. Like if a tui lands close to me suddenly, I may say “Oh hi tui”.
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Fitting!
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I think at the public level, for departments/organizations/conservation groups, it is reasonable to make it a rule to not name wild animals, for their own protection.
However on a personal level, I think it is actually beneficial to name wildlife because it gives us more connection to them. And I think on the whole for most people, the closer they feel connected to wildlife, the more they are motivated to protect the wildlife. Not everyone thinks about the broad-scale impacts their personal decisions have on the environment and wildlife. It’s much easier for someone to care about “this particular tree” that they have an attachment to because they named it, than about trees in general.
For example, say a person has a dead tree in the corner of their property, and every single day they see the same woodpecker and peck at that tree. They decide to name him “Fred”. Then one day a man comes to their door with a chainsaw and offers to cut down that dead tree in their yard because “it looks bad and nobody wants a dead tree in their yard”. And the person responds, “No thank you, I’m going to leave it alone, because that is Fred’s tree.”
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Possibly so, I have no issues personally with people giving affectionate names to wild animals. Like my folks naming a bird which came to a feeder “scruffy” because of the head feathers always being messed up. I enjoy getting to know indivual animals that I have seen over time. Like a particular leucistic oystercatcher I have known for about a decade. But I like wildlife regardless of if its the first time seeing them, or the thousanth.
Its human though for people to want to form closer associations with things, and thats fine. Anyway people choose to enjoy nature in non-destructive ways is a good thing.
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I had a graduate student who wanted to name all the birds we were banding (ringing) on this one project. Swainson’s warbler in English (I’m sure it’s on the name-changing chopping block too; Limnothlypis is the genus).
I was applying color bands to each warbler in this population we were studying. The colors led to some fun ideas about names. We had 10-12 colors to choose from, plus a couple rings were of two colors (“splits”).
She came up with some fun '‘personal" names for about 20 of the 50 birds we were monitoring. I do not remember most but there was one, which colors reminded all of us of jelly beans. And that became the birds’ moniker - good old Jelly Bean.
I still have Amy’s field notebook from then (~2007) and at some point I will have to look up the names she was using. She went on to teach in our public school system, next county over. She had just the right attitude to blend science and a little fun with kids (which is why I took her on; she was planning to be a school teacher but wanted this ‘other’ experience).
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Honestly, there was a Great Blue Herron at my house when I was growing up. We named him “Herman.” He was there for more then a decade. Then, he disappeared and got replaced with anothet herron which we named “Herron II.” Lol
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This reminded me, that whilst the department dosent name, trusts might. One database which I am a fan of, is the Kea Database, a way that members of the public can report sightings of any of these birds. But looking up the bands, they can also look up who that bird is, where they were banded, and where they were last seen. Its one that I do promote to people who have been seeing keas, to help us better understand thier movements, or just to know they are still around. Especially when many might only ever be seen by mountaineers (Though the most reports will come from certain birds which like to hang out at popular tourist stops).
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