Campaign to standardise the capitalising of English names of species (1 Viewer)

[dantheman]

I have noticed that academic zoologists (e.g. Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology blog fame) tend to capitalise only the first word of a species name - Red grouse, Blue tit, Yellow-legged gull, Garden warbler, etc. Not sure where the convention comes from, but that's another approach to add to the mix...

That seems clunky. Wonder if there are any equivalents in other fields out there? - can't think of any offhand.

Going back to other things that are capitalised such as names, cars and plant varieties (eg Ford Prefect, Ford Prefect and Gardener's Delight), brand names and product names are capitalized - there doesn't seem to be any argument over this eg a Hoover, a bottle of Cif or Heineken - even if they are individual items. I suppose one way to get animal names capitalised officially would be for some body to patent/register the genome of the organism ... thereafter it would have to be capitilised?!

 

[Robert Wallace]

I don't understand why the RSPB don't capitalise bird names; it should be in their interest for birds to be more important in their publications and elsewhere? Did someone tell them it was 'wrong'? (Don't recall offhand if they changed from doing it in the past)

Are there any ornithologiists actually running the RSPB? Their recent bosses seem to need fundraising as their main priority.As for their house magazine it is continuing in its dumbing down spiral, compare their 1970, 2000 and 2021 volumes and you'll see my point.
Probably doesn't matter as most members ( including myself) rarely use scientific names, but I certainly agree about the use of capital letters starting proper nouns.

 

[Steve Lister]

Major progress - the latest RSPB members' magazine includes capitalised English names for birds at last.

WWT next ? I still use the blue duck semen as a great example of the need for capitals.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Major progress - the latest RSPB members' magazine includes capitalised English names for birds at last.

WWT next ? I still use the blue duck semen as a great example of the need for capitals.

Very good 👍