Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Lost in Translation

In the video I posted in the last blog you hear me say that I think that the animal is a meerkat. On watching the video my wife tells me that no one will understand me because a meerkat is a South African animal and no one will have hear of it. She was bloody right as well.

Wikipedia tells me that a meerkat comes from the mongoose family. So that leads me to wonder if that animal is in fact a mongoose? But looking at some pictures of mongeese tell me that it probably isn't.

...Pause while he goes off and does some more searching...

Okay I think I have the answer. I found to images of a Ring Tailed Cat (Bassariscus astutus) and I believe that is what it is.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

is a meerkat not a ferret?
is the plural of mongoose not mongooses?

Anonymous said...

did you ever see that film lost in yonkers?

Guy Ellis said...

Interestingly we are both wrong on that plural. Apparently it's mongoloids.

From wikipedia: "Interstingly the plural for Mongoose is not as one would expect. Unlike the more commonly familiar european Goose, they do not pluralise as 'Mongeese'. Neither does the plural 'Mongooses' apply. Infact the latin derivation Mongoloids is the correct term."

Guy Ellis said...

According to wikipedia a meerkat is a member of the mongoose family and you know rule: If you read it on the web then it must be true.

Guy Ellis said...

I've never seen Lost in Yonkers. Any good? What's it about? I have, however, seen Lost in Translation which is a fairly average movie with Bill Murray in Japan.

Anonymous said...

i always thought mongoloid was a term reserved for your brother. i shall now refer to him as mongoose as thankfully, there is only one of him. going to visit pat and chris in july on way back from uk, and am sure will hook up with mike there. so its only you missing out on my international visits.

cant recall much of the movie besides the fact it was very weird and i went to watch it with a girl called trish.

Guy Ellis said...

Isn't Trish your mother-in-law?

Anonymous said...

very amusing. no.
trish was a friend of shelley, my ex girlfriend 2 before joneta who is also an ex girlfriend and not a current wife. her mum trish and i prefer to avoid each others company.

Guy Ellis said...

Are you part of the X-Generation? A trail of Ex's behind you...