Micronycteris giovanniae, The Poet’s Bat

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. Here’s a trivia question for you.

What well-known U.S. Poet has a species of bat named after her?

Well-known U.S. Poet has a species of bat named after her.

Is this a joke or is it real?

No, no, it’s real.

I don’t know. Who?

Well, it’s Nikki Giovanni.

Nikki Giovanni?

Yes, over her long career, she earned a whole lot of awards like the Langston Hughes Medal.

She was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

But she also has a species of bat named after her, Micronictorus geovanii.

Because in 2004, Robert Baker, who was a biologist at Texas Tech there in Lubbock,

Discovered a new species of Micronictorus.

And this is a bat that’s also known as the leaf-nosed bat.

And he was a huge fan of Nicky Giovanni.

And he wrote at the time,

I decided to choose someone whose life work I respected immensely,

But that I’d never had contact with.

It was a way of going outside of my own world.

So Robert Baker wrote to Nicky Giovanni, and he basically said,

You don’t know me, and this isn’t a joke, but I want to name a bat after you.

And Nikki Giovanni was delighted.

She told the Washington Post, it’s really cute with big ears and little eyes and it hangs out in the rainforests of Ecuador.

Oh, yeah.

I would be honored as well.

Yeah.

What a tribute to have a species named after you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, he really felt like he was conferring a gift.

You know, there are millions and millions and millions of stars, but there aren’t that many animal species.

So it’s kind of a big deal.

And instead of naming it after himself.

Yes.

Yes, to name it after a poet.

I just thought that was lovely.

He has her work up on his office walls.

And I really love that.

And I also love learning the word nose leaf.

Nose hyphen leaf is that thing on these bats.

It kind of looks like a little leaf.

It is really cute, this little structure that may help them with echolocation.

Oh, exciting.

I’ve always been thrilled to learn more about echolocation.

I wish I could do it.

Names are part of language, and this show is about language.

Tell us about the names in your lives.

What if you named the kids, the dog, the car, the refrigerator, 877-929-9673, or on Twitter @wayword.