Zoological word puzzle experiment

Originally posted to Shawn Hargreaves Blog on MSDN, Friday, September 24, 2010

This is an experiment to see which is smarter: phone a friend or ask the audience?

The challenge: name an animal, the name of which consists of two words, each of which is themselves an animal, but neither of which refers to the animal itself.

For instance, Tiger Moth does not count, because it is itself a moth.

Dragonfly, although not technically a fly, is disqualified because dragons are mythological.

For some reasons my siblings and I have been obsessed with this challenge for several years, before a friend recently came up with a valid answer. We were sure there must be at least one such animal, but couldn't think what it was.

So now I am curious: can the collective wisdom of the Internet solve this in less time than it took my real world family and friends?

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