The Secret of Wolfpit Village by Josie Glausiusz

If you live in a place called Pigeonroost, Wolfpit, or Rattlesnake Ridge, the name of your village may contain important clues for preserving and restoring the local fauna. John Cox, a graduate student in conservation biology at the University of Kentucky, says that most landmarks named after wildlife accurately map the animals and birds that covered North America before European colonization. In some cases, these names are the only evidence left of the area's original occupants. Photo by John Cox.

Cox and his adviser, David Maehr, consulted a U.S. Geological Survey database of place-names across the country and found more than 35,000 sites—settlements, summits, lakes, and islands—named after 23 different species or genera of animals and birds, including the badger, lynx, and javelina, a wild peccary. When he compared the locations of these names with historical records of animal distributions, he found remarkable agreement. Animals that had a limited range, such as the javelina in the Southwest, were commemorated only locally. Those that were once ubiquitous, such as bears, were widely represented. The Kentucky village of Wolfpit, for instance, probably records a time when the animal roamed the continent. "It's a powerful symbol of what we've lost in the past 200 years," says Cox. He hopes place-names will serve as historical markers to guide future restoration of wild species. [Source: Discover Magazine, November 2002, p. 14.]