Tragulus kanchil
- noun
- Specialized
- The Tragulus kanchil is the smallest hoofed mammal in the world.
Examples
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Researchers observed a Tragulus kanchil foraging quietly in the forest undergrowth.
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A Tragulus kanchil can easily slip through dense vegetation thanks to its tiny size.
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The Tragulus kanchil is often found in dense forests.
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Have you ever seen a Tragulus kanchil in the wild?
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A Tragulus kanchil can easily slip through dense vegetation thanks to its tiny size.
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Researchers observed a Tragulus kanchil foraging quietly in the forest undergrowth.
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The Tragulus kanchil is the smallest hoofed mammal in the world.
Synonyms
A very small animal like a deer that lives in Southeast Asia
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression is a taxonomic binomial combining genus and species: both constituents explicitly denote the same small chevrotain (Tragulus = small deer-like mammals; kanchil = a small chevrotain), so a learner who knows those word meanings can infer the referent. This compositional, scientific naming pattern is cross-linguistically regular and therefore transparent to a B1 learner familiar with the constituent terms.
Etymology
Tragulus kanchil comes from old words that give a clear picture: Tragulus is from a word for 'little goat' and kanchil is Malay for 'mouse-deer', so the name suggests a very small, deer-like animal.