Wild animals with names you gave them

Are there any wild animals that you have came across that stand out in some way that made you want to name them?

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My son has a pigeon he named Meryl. She has a dark body with a completely white head. We just like her and think she’s pretty. We’ve been seeing her for years!

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not an animal but whenever i first saw this observation my immediate thought was ghost berries!!! turns out they are called snake eyes and that’s just as cool or better lol :joy: however i think mine wins only bc i saw this like 3-4 days before halloween :ghost:

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For all one particularly hard winter, we had a pine marten that came on our window sill at night to eat the fat we put out for the birds. Even with the light on in the room, it seemed completely oblivious of our presence, even when we were just centimetres from the window itself. We named him (?) Giacomino and ever since, all small mustelids we encounter are known collectively as Giacominos :roll_eyes: :grinning:.

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When radio tracking rails we of course band them so each bird has a unique numeric code. But it’s helpful to have a nickname to use for ease of reference.

For example, a bird in the northernmost territory of the study site might start as “North Bird” but that is then shortened to Norbert.

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I occasionally see a beautiful large male Ocellated lizard, Timon lepidus. I know the stone he lives under and have named him: Don Timón, El de Antequera, (There is a wine and juice brand Don Simón and El the Antequera was the given name to the Spanish king Fernando I de Aragón after he had reconquered the city from the moors.)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150845999

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We had a family of Gray Foxes that hung around our back yard quite often, and the male was particularly “tame”. He would often lay in the shade in the yard during the hot summer. We named him ‘Pops’.

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We often used to see a beautiful bobcat at our old house, which was somewhat wooded. The area was attractive to both coyotes and bobcats, with lots of small animals to hunt (squirrels, wood rats, bunnies, moles, and gophers. My husband frequently posted the photos on FB. A friend suggested we name the bobcat, and I immediately thought of the name, Tracy. I’m not sure why that name came to mind; but we truly were thrilled seeing Tracy around, resting or hunting or just passing by.

Tracy: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2021-07-01&d2=2023-07-31&place_id=any&q=Bobcat&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any
Sadly, I did not see the bobcat after May 28, when I got a shot out the porch window as Tracy got up from a nap in the shrubs. I saw my old neighbor yesterday, and she says most of the wildlife seems to be gone since a construction project started nearby. Sigh.

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There’s a pine tree I have named ‘Miss Piggy’ because hunters use it on a regular basis to hang wild boar carcasses and skins.

OK that’s no animal, even though it still has furry bits here and there.

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Here is Giorgio, who lived in our garden and loved to have his photo taken. His favorite treat as a juvenile was the purple flowers of the Ruellia that grows profusely about the garden so I would watch him zip from bloom to bloom and strip them every morning. At a certain point he left for parts unknown (likely with less barking).

This is Steggie, who lived for a long time in the exact same place on the exact same plant in my garden. (I actually observed what I believe to be Steggie a few months later but as he had not been consistently in the same place I cannot be 100% sure.)

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Oh, and how could I forget Gilda (named for the incomparable Gilda Radner because of her beautiful eyes)!

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Ever since this guy showed up alone a little over 3 years ago he’s been a regular almost every day since. He’s already been by this morning for a peanut. I’ve been calling him Buddy since he’s very friendly and has a tendency to just hang out in our bottlebrush while I’m outside doing yardwork or my checklists. If he sees me come out to refill the feeder he’ll fly over but if he’s a bit further out and I can only hear him I can whistle a particular tune and he’ll fly out from wherever he was hiding. He definitely recognizes my face and voice. It’s cool that there’s a being out there, not a person, who remembers that I exist! That is worth so much to me as someone who can’t leave their home. The little things I suppose.

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Meet Owen https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/296903 they are all Owen to me

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Oh I have SO MANY:

We call all boy coyotes Jonxalonx and all girl coyotes Xeromphalina. I don’t know why, it just happened and I sometimes refer to them by those names in normal conversation and people think I’m insane :sweat_smile:

There was a family of crows that lived in front of our last house and would call to us to get a little bit of leftover dry cat food that they discovered on our front porch one day (it’s where I fed the cats) we called the family the Storm Crows (cuz how could you not? :man_mage:t2:) There were the 2 parents Tornado and Derecho, and their baby Squall

I call all Douglas squirrels Doug and say Yo, Doug, what’s up how’s it going and ask them what they’re up to and why they are so angry at me all the time :chipmunk:

I call all Mycena species of mushroom John. John (my)Cena :men_wrestling: and all species of Russula Kurt. Kurt Russul(a) :joy:

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Oh and all jumping spiders are Portia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Time_(novel)

I had a little red bellied snake neighbor who lived in one of my garden beds named Mushroom!

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We don’t usually name things but there’s a feral peacock in the area that we hear constantly. We’ve named him Kevin.

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But … what if Kevin is a girl? :smile:

One of this year’s crop of bunnies stood out by dint of food preferences. Utterly obsessed with dandelions, and incredibly methodical about eating them. He (or she) would bite the stem of a flower as close to the base as possible, and nibble it upward, saving the inflorescense for last. Only when a plant was bare of flowers would he start on the leaves.

Needless to say, we named him Dandelion.

Kevin appears to be presenting as male. Lots of calling and when he used to visit, large tail displays.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177067332

This alligator lived on the golf course my family lived near years and years ago, my family named him fred and then for some reason when ever he was on the other side of the road my mom would call him fredette. He didn’t really stand out beyond living in a pond next to the road we drove on every day but we did name him.

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