isiXhosa names of South African land mammals

Abstract

The isiXhosa colloquial names of 86 taxa of South African land mammals recorded in three mammalogical works and three isiXhoxa dictionaries are tabulated and discussed. This reveals several ambiguities, discrepancies, inconsistencies and uncertainties, as well those species and groups of species for which the names are not in doubt. Resolving the doubts would benefit the administration of environmental law, and would assist fieldworkers doing mammal/ biodiversity surveys in isiXhosa-speaking...