dik-dik
the reason i like the dik-dik is not because it is an antelope the size of my kid sister’s my little pony dolls. i like the dik-dik because it is an onomatopoetic animal. cuckoos, whip-poor-wills, and of course the chaffinch are named for their calls, but they are all birds. the dik-dik is the only REAL animal that i can think of which gets its name from the sound that it makes (when startled).
photo credit: the internet
UPDATE (7/27/2009): donkey, ape and gecko are other potentially onomatopoetic animals.

