Species with Funny English Common Names

The Screaming Hairy Armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus) is a species of armadillo in the Dasypodidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, temperate grassland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, hot deserts, temperate desert, arable land, pastureland, and plantations. The adjective "screaming" derives from its habit of squealing when threatened. less ↑

The pacarana (Dinomys branickii) is a rare and slow-moving nocturnal rodent found only in tropical forests of the western Amazon River basin and adjacent foothills of the Andes Mountains from northwestern Venezuela and Colombia to western Bolivia, including the yungas. One place that it is common is Cotapata National Park in Bolivia. It is known as the pacarama (false paca) by native Indians due to its superficial similarity to a different caviomorph rodent, the paca. less ↑

The Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris), also known as the Rock Chuck, is a ground squirrel in the marmot genus. It lives in the western United States and southwestern Canada, including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. It inhabits steppes, meadows, talus fields and other open habitats, sometimes on the edge of deciduous or coniferous forests, and typically above 6,500 feet (2,000 m) of elevation. Yellow-bellied Marmots usually weigh between 5 and 11 pounds (2 and 5 kg) when... less ↑