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Avoiding Animal Names Confusion

You may come across the names of some unusual animals on German Yabla, especially in some of the nature series like Abenteuer Nordsee. One problem with a lot of animal names is that the German name, if translated directly word for word, may actually be a completely different animal altogether. 

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Ein Butterfisch lauert auf Beute.

A rock gunnel fish lies in wait for prey.

Caption 39, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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If you look up der Butterfisch on German Wikipedia, you see that they are part of the Pholidae fish species. If you had translated the name to the English "butterfish," however, you would have wound up mistakenly referring to a completely different fish of the Stromateidae species. A German Butterfisch is in fact a "rock gunnel fish" in English, and an English "butterfish" is a Medusenfisch in German. Looking up an animal's name on German Wikipedia and then going to the equivalent English Wikipedia page (or vice versa, of course) is a good way to be sure you are getting the animals' names right! 
 

Ein Steinpicker sucht mit seinen Barteln nach Fressbarem.

A hooknose fish is searching with its barbels for edibles.

Caption 27, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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The German term der Steinpicker may translate directly to something like "stone picker," but in English no such species name exists, and as you see above, it's referring to the "hooknose fish."
 

Taschenkrebse, die berühmten Helgoländer „Knieper“ [Dialekt, Kneifer],

Brown crabs, the famous Heligoland pinchers,

brechen Bohrmuscheln aus dem Kalkstein.

are breaking false angel wing clams out from the limestone.

Captions 29-30, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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The example above has two animals which might easily be misidentified, der Taschenkrebs and die Bohrmuschel, which you might be tempted to translate as "pocket crab" and "drill mussel" respectively, but you'd be wrong if you did: neither of these animal names exist in English! In fact, der Taschenkrebs is a "brown crab" or "edible crab," and die Bohrmuschel is not a mussel at all, but a "false angel wing clam."

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Further Learning
Watch or re-watch the Abenteuer Nordsee series on Yabla German and pay special attention to the names of animals. Read more about these animals on German Wikipedia and expand your German vocabulary at the same time!

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