One of the great things about London is that it's home to all of the institutions that you don't really know exist because they don't do things that you really think about that often. They just go quietly about their business, which in the ICNZ's case is giving proper names to animals.
Or as they like to put it "providing and regulating the system for ensuring that every animal has a unique and universally accepted scientific name", so we're guessing they'd have to be good at like, latin and stuff.
The reason why the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has come to our attention is because the nice people of the Wildlife Conservation Society are auctioning off the chance to name a newly discovered species of Bolivian Monkey, with the money raised going towards protecting the cute hairy little tree swingers.
That's some gift for the significant other in your life: "Sorry, couldn't get tickets for that show you wanted, so instead I've named an entire species of primate after you."
We're not sure, but we think that's better than giving diamonds.
