[Also serving as a test for posting in Japanese] Does the first half of the Pallas's cat's scientific name really mean "ugly ears"?
Hello to all Pallas's cat lovers.
The site has now implemented a new "translation function into any language."
Therefore, although I am normally a Japanese speaker, I will be posting an article in Japanese (probably the first on this site).
This is a repost of an article posted here in August 2025.
Does the first half of the Pallas's cat's scientific name really mean "ugly ears"?
The scientific name of the Pallas's cat is "Otocolobus manul".
Many books and articles about the Pallas's cat state that manul means "little wildcat" and otocolobus means "ugly ears."
On the other hand, some articles claim that otocolobus means "shortened ears."
I decided to ask my go-to AI, Arya (aka Gab AI), about this. Sorry for the slightly broken English.
(According to the developer's email newsletter , Arya can "read every book ever written (presumably available in English) (immediately after a user asks a question)." In other words, she can answer all questions related to them.)
Q: The Latin name of Pallas's cat is Otocolobus manul. Many articles or books say Otocolobus means “ugly ears”. But some people say it means short-cut ears. What does otocolobus truly mean?
A: The genus name Otocolobusis derived from Ancient Greek:
- oto- (ωτός)*: the genitive form of ous (οὖς), meaning ear
- kolobos (κολοβός)*: meaning cut short, short-eared, or mutilated/shortened
Literally, Otocolobus means “short-eared”. The association with “ugly ears” is a later, interpretive gloss rather than a literal translation—likely because some early naturalists considered the cat's small, rounded ears aesthetically unappealing. The original Greek points unambiguously to “short-cut ears” as the intended meaning.
I see.
Strictly speaking, some fact-checking may be necessary, such as confirming with a Greek language expert, but now Pallas's cat fans can proudly say that "Pallas's ears are not ugly."
Azumama seems to be satisfied with this explanation.
(Aside)
Speaking of which, when I visited Kobe Animal Kingdom in February this year , a visitor standing near me in front of the Pallas's cat exhibit said, "The Pallas's cat's ears are cute ."
He said.
Also, in overseas Pallas's cat communities, there is a common argument that "it's strange to call Pallas's cat ears 'ugly'."
There are voices saying this.
It seems that the aesthetic sense of "old Western naturalists" and "modern people" is different.
That's the end of the original article.
If any of our readers are knowledgeable about Ancient Greek, please fact-check Arya's (Gab AI) answer to see if it's accurate.
Comments 7
Sven
Maeko, thank you for the article! We have enjoyed reading it!
Regarding the topic I have one thing to add. Word "Colobus" sometimes is used in latin names for species which have something different than similar spicies (e.g. Black-and-white colobuses, Colobus Genus, etc.).
Regarding the translation... I've checked English and Russian translations of your post and, both look OK to me. Of course it's clearly visible that they are machine-translatable texts, but they are readable and understandable.
I'm thinging about checking a more "intelligent" model provided by Google (but more expensive one), maybe it'll produce more "human-like" posts.
Also, as a Japanese speakear you should see "Translate to Japanese" above every post and comment. Have you seen those? Have you tried it?
Manulization, Thank you for reading, Roman and Vika!
Oh, Colobus has such meaning, too.
And thank you for considering developing the translation function even more😊
As for the "Translate to Japanese" function, I guess it's perfect👌
I will also try posting comments in Japanese.
Hello Ushiomaeko.
I was also wondering if the translation function would work even if I typed in Japanese.
I hope this will attract more Japanese users...
schwentine, Hello. I wonder if the comment was typed in Japanese? It seems to be automatically converted to English (just like the article)♪ So I tried typing it in Japanese too.
schwentine, Hi! I'm on the Russian version of the site, so I see your messages in Russian, but if I click the "show original" button, I see that your comment was originally written in Japanese.
The English version is the same, but all texts are automatically translated into English (I repeat: however, if you click "show original" it will be in Japanese).
This is how the translator currently works. We may improve it in the future so that all texts are automatically translated and displayed in Japanese to Japanese users.
Manuls ears are nothing but cuuuuuuuute 🤗🥰