Common, non-scientific, names for animals make up an important part of the terminology used in scientific texts for non-specialists in English. This is due to both the genre’s thematic orientation toward nature as well as to the wide variety of common names available to the English language which is, in turn, partly a consequence of the long-standing English tradition of amateur and specialist study of fauna which has led to the coining of a great number of artificial, non-scientific animal names. After briefly explaining the basics of taxonomic naming and vernacular zoonymy, the paper discusses the problems which arise when translating such animal names into Spanish. It also proposes a number of translation strategies to overcome three main problems in doing so.