In zoos the popular names of the animals on display are written on a label in front of their cages. The label also carries the animal’s scientific name in Latin. For example, on a lion’s cage, the Latin name is Panthera leo; on a tiger’s cage of a leopard the name is Panthera pardus.
Latin is the language accepted by scientists and zoologists throughout the world to avoid confusion. The Latin name for any animal consists of two words because the scientific classification of animals still follows the basic principle laid down by the botanist Carolus Linnaeus. In the examples we have already quoted the first part of the names is the word Panthera: this refers to the genus of the animal. The second part of the name refers to the species. Members of an animal species that have many features in common come together in a genus. The Panthera genus, for example, includes the large cats which are unable to purr. Smaller cats, which can purr but do not roar, belong to the genus Feils. Both genera are in the family Felidae. A number of genera from a family and several families form an order. The orders come together under classes and the classes fall into types. The total of all these forms the animal kingdom.
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