leave no leaf behind
The case of the Koala illustrates better than any rant or statistic the excesses of Chinese vocabulary: this animal, of which none has ever set paw in China outside a zoo, has no less than five different names in Chinese. As far as I've understood the different names are used in different regions:
樹袋熊 shùdàixióng - ???
無尾熊 wúwěixióng - Taiwan
考拉熊 kǎolāxióng - or just 考拉, used in the PRC
樹熊 shùxióng - HK
What's fascinating is how the different names stress different things about the koala: it's habitat, its kinship with the wombat (袋熊), its original name in Dharug or its tail-less physical appearance. English seems almost lexically impoverished in comparison, but then again, maybe we should be thankful for that.
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