What's Your Name?

How Well Do You Know Baby Animals?

Linda Ann Nickerson

Those baby animals are sweet;
Look at their tiny eyes and feet.
What can you call a girl or boy,
The parent creature's pride and joy?

A pony's not a little horse,
A colt or filly is, of course.
But both are known as equine foals,
Right from their tails up to their polls.

A newborn cow is called a calf,
Born from the bull's own better half.
And gators have both bulls and cows,
Though odd, it's just what truth allows.

An antelope babe, buck or doe,
May outrun the big buffalo,
Whose bull or cow may rise to eat,
While ram or ewe lambs loudly bleat.

Still, bucks and does may include squirrels,
As with all rodent boys and girls.
Though mallards may have drakes and ducks,
Most flying birds have hens and cocks.

Hogs and hedgehogs, out of doors,
Give birth to tiny sows and boars.
And cats produce tomcats and queens,
Depending on their gender genes.

So nature needs an answer key,
To name its own, both he and she.
As creatures young, on sea and land
Arrive together, babies grand.

Published by Linda Ann Nickerson - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle and Sports

Linda Ann Nickerson brings decades of reporting and a globally minded Midwestern perspective to a host of topics, balancing human interest with history, hard facts and often humor.   View profile

5 Comments

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  • Michael K. Miller 2/26/2008

    Nicely done, Linda Ann. Have you thought of 'sharing' this will your local school's primarys and kindergartens? They would love it - both the teachers and students. There are many, many 'teachable moments' here. Michael

  • Charlie K 2/26/2008

    Like it!

  • J. E. Davidson 2/25/2008

    What a sweet, clever poem!

  • Lenora Murdock 2/25/2008

    Lovely..another to forward...thanks.

  • Coffee Mugg 2/25/2008

    I think babies are so adorable, Good Job Miss Linda

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