Faunists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Scientists or researchers who specialize in studying the animal life of a particular region, habitat, or geological era
2. Experts who investigate and catalogue the fauna found in a specific area, often as part of a survey or field expedition
3. Zoologists focused on documenting the animal species that inhabit a given territory or existed in a past period

Etymology: "Faunists" is the plural of "faunist," a person who studies or catalogues the animals of a particular region or period. The noun is built from "fauna," the collective term for animal life, which was borrowed into English from Latin, where it denoted the rural Italian deity Faunus, and the suffix "-ist," which marks a practitioner or specialist. Together they describe someone who works specifically on the animal life of a place, much as a botanist works on plants.

Synonyms: naturalist