Meerkats, a species of mongoose, are often labelled 'slender-tailed meerkats' in zoos. But as there's only one extant meerkat species, why use a specifier like 'slender-tailed'?
It turns out that, in the past, a synonym for the yellow mongoose was 'red meerkat'*. Overtime, red meerkat was dropped and yellow mongoose became the species' exclusive name.
After this, slender-tailed meerkats were thus the only meerkat species. This meant the 'slender-tailed' moniker could be largely dropped because there was no need to specify between different meerkat species.
However, a species' name in rarely changed in zoology without a very compelling reason. Seeing zoos following the principles of zoology is hardly a surprise!
*(Yellow mongoose/red meerkat: same species yet different colour? In mammals, yellow and red are both produced by phaeomelanin. As such, these colour terms are both used to signify their phaeomelanin origin rather than the colour itself. 'Recessive yellow' and 'recessive red' in dog colouration are synonyms, for example. Hence the colours in yellow mongoose and red meerkat aren't referring to different things.)
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