Why Do We Call Baby Deer Fawns?
If you've ever wondered about the names for baby animals ranging from swans to seals, read on for answers.
Can’t resist that kitten video? Don’t even try.
Sometimes animals’ names are as cute as they are, so this week we’re looking names of animal young. After all, even if you jump at the sight of Halloween spiders, you might still smile at spiderlings.
Young eagles are eaglets, owls are owlets, and before they’re equally cute adults, puffins are called pufflings. (Related: Icelandic Kids Save Befuddled Puffins)
Such names aren’t scientific, like species-specific Latin names used to categorize animals, says Marc Devokaitis of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Common baby bird designations usually “come from hunting, domestication, or falconry,” he says.
Ornithologists often call young birds chicks, nestlings or fledglings, but “swans, geese and ducks, have a specific word,” he says—cygnets,