Brent goose
Branta bernicla
[Linnaeus, 1758]
The brent goose is another member of the Anatidae family (swans, ducks and geese) and like the alien Canada goose, a "black goose" like the barnacle goose also - one of the Branta genus of geese as opposed to the grey Anser genus.
I've included the brent goose in my list of zoological nomenclature explanations here as its scientific name might confuse the unsuspecting...
Whilst dissecting the generic name of the Canada goose here, I've explained the stem of Branta (old Norse brand meaning singed black) but what can bernicla mean then?
Rather like the geese we call barnacle geese (similar-looking but unrelated geese, see below) medieval folklore would have it that the brent goose appeared from nowhere in the late autumn - born as goose barnacles (the barnacle was actually named after the goose, not the other way around).
This is because no-one tended to see barnacle or brent geese breeding or young - this all happened in the arctic.
It seems strange to us now that this was believed, but if you look at a goose barnacle, with its feathery feeding appendage extended, you could almost see what those medieval folk meant and understand why they thought goose barnacles were the young geese.
So bernicla literally means "barnacle" in Latin and the scientific name for the brent goose (NOT the barnacle goose), literally means:
the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle".
But what about the bird that we refer to as a "barnacle goose" - it can't have the same scientific name as the brent goose can it?
No... it doesn't. What we call the barnacle goose is referred to scientifically as Branta leucopsis - which literally means the "singed goose with a light white face". Far more sensible than the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle" don't you agree...?
I've included the brent goose in my list of zoological nomenclature explanations here as its scientific name might confuse the unsuspecting...
Whilst dissecting the generic name of the Canada goose here, I've explained the stem of Branta (old Norse brand meaning singed black) but what can bernicla mean then?
Rather like the geese we call barnacle geese (similar-looking but unrelated geese, see below) medieval folklore would have it that the brent goose appeared from nowhere in the late autumn - born as goose barnacles (the barnacle was actually named after the goose, not the other way around).
This is because no-one tended to see barnacle or brent geese breeding or young - this all happened in the arctic.
It seems strange to us now that this was believed, but if you look at a goose barnacle, with its feathery feeding appendage extended, you could almost see what those medieval folk meant and understand why they thought goose barnacles were the young geese.
So bernicla literally means "barnacle" in Latin and the scientific name for the brent goose (NOT the barnacle goose), literally means:
the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle".
But what about the bird that we refer to as a "barnacle goose" - it can't have the same scientific name as the brent goose can it?
No... it doesn't. What we call the barnacle goose is referred to scientifically as Branta leucopsis - which literally means the "singed goose with a light white face". Far more sensible than the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle" don't you agree...?
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