What Do We Call Their Babies? Quiz

Answer: fawn

Reindeer in North America are known as caribou, a term which entered English from the French Canadian approximation of an Algonquin word meaning "snow shoveler." Because they are members of the deer family (Cervidae), their young are sometimes described by the term for a deer's calf: fawn.

Answer: a female domestic chicken under a year of age

While a newborn domestic chicken may be called a chick, as a female chick grows it becomes a pullet until it reaches one year of age or begins to lay eggs. The term pullet comes from the Old French "polet" which is a diminutive of "poule" meaning "hen."

Answer: a peachick

Peafowl are natives of India and Southeast Asia. Of the genus Pavo, they are related to pheasants, quails and partridges. To suggest that something is like a peacock, one calls it pavonine, e.g. "The Empress appeared in a pavonine gown which left no colour unexpressed."

Answer: efts

The Old English name for newts was "efte" from which the modern name for the young of newts derives. Efts tend to be terrestrial whereas fully mature newts are either aquatic or semi-aquatic. Their use in witches' brew is relatively unexplored.

Answer: a gosling

The modern terms for geese descend directly from the Germanic beginnings of Old English. The OE singular was gōs, the plural was gēs, and the masculine gandres. Gosling is diminutive of the OE gōs. Young birds are considered goslings until they fly. A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle.

Answer: cub

The curious name "aardvark" derives from the Afrikaans, which seems appropriate to an animal found only in Africa. The name means something like "earth pig" in reference to aardvarks' great skills as burrowers. Single cubs are born who quickly mature to leave the burrow in search of ants and termites, their primary diet once weaned from their mother's milk.

Answer: baby or infant

There are nearly 100 species of lemurs in Madagascar. They range in size from mouse lemurs which weigh only an ounce up to the recently-extinct giant lemurs which weighed as much as a gorilla. The name "lemur" derives from an Old Latin word meaning "ghost" or "spirit." There appears to be no English word for their offspring other than baby or infant.

Answer: stot

The word "stot" derives from the Old English where it meant to jump or leap or bound in the manner characteristic of gazelles and antelopes (called pronking or pronging). How it came to refer to a young ox is something of an etymological mystery, although young oxen are known to run with a springing gait when playing.

Answer: a leveret

Baby hares are called leverets until they are a year old. There are many differences between leverets and bunnies. Hares are born with fur and with open eyes; bunnies are born hairless and with their eyes closed. Hares are ready to forage shortly after birth; bunnies remain in a burrow with their mother.

Answer: seafoal

A male seahorse is called a seastallion; a female seahorse is called a seamare. One species (H. fuscus) is called the "sea pony." Seahorses belong to a genus called Hippocampus. The term Hippocampus is produced by joining two Ancient Greek words: one meaning horse and the other meaning a sea monster.

Answer: cria

Not only alpaca offspring are called crias; other camelid species such as the llama and the vicuña use the same term. The Spanish influence in South America is reflected in this name for camelid babies; cría is the Spanish word for baby.

Answer: pups

Collectively, a group of meerkats may be called a mob, a gang or a clan. They live in southern Africa and in many zoos. And, with their black-ringed eyes, standing tall on their hind feet, they are totally cute!

Answer: calf

The subspecies American plains bison has an interesting scientific name: Bison bison bison.

Answer: shrewlets

The entire shrew race is slandered by William Shakespeare's portrayal of Katherina Minola in "The Taming of the Shrew." Very few mammals are venomous but several shrew species are. Perhaps the Bard may be forgiven.

Answer: infant

Perhaps because chimpanzees share so much in common with another primate -- the human being -- the proper terms for the offspring of both is the same: infant and, sometimes, baby. Juvenile chimps remain infants for about five years. The word "chimpanzee" was adapted in the early 18th Century from a Bantu language, Tshiluba, spoken in Angola.