SCIENTIFIC NAMES

AGE – 3

 My mother is however very proud of how her children impressed her colleagues and she always reminds us of this story.  We were growing up and of course inquisitive in everything my mother did.  We were too young to go to school, so most of the time we went with my mother on her Nature Conservation missions. 

Many of her colleagues complained about frogs, insects or other creepy crawlies in their rooms, and it was always me that immediately rushed in and removed them.  Both me and my sister would also catch mice and identify them by their scientific names. There was a lot of competition between my sister and myself. This is only a Fat Mouse, the Steatomys pratensis.  Oh good, this is a Shortridge’s Rock Mouse, the Petromyscus shortridgei.  I know I was extremely young and other 3 year old children never know the scientific names of mice and rats.  We would even run into the grass whenever me or my sister saw something, anything, and we seemed to have become quite good at catching and identifying them.  My mom would always ask us in front of her colleagues, so what mouse did you catch and what is its scientific name. 

My Grandfather used to tell the story of him trying to read us a bedside story about a dragon.   Every time he mentioned the big dragon, instead of being frightened I started to laugh.  Finally I couldn’t contain myself and blurted out: “No, Grandpa, its not a dragon -- it’s a Tyrannosaurus rex.”

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