Updated 2026-06-27: Added QUOKKA, VIPER, and WASP.

Bioinformaticians make the worst zookeepers:

A

2011 — ANTELOPE: Analysis of Networks through TEmporal-LOgic sPEcifications …has nothing to do with antelopes

B

2014 — BISON: BISulfite alignment On Nodes of a cluster …has nothing to do with bisons

C

2011 — CORAL: CORrection with ALignments …has nothing to do with corals

D

2010 — DODO: DOmain based Detection of Orthologs …has nothing to do with dodos

E

2011 — EMU: Extractor of MUtations …has nothing to do with emus
2014 — EAGLE: Enhanced Artificial Genome Engine (no 'L'?!?) …has nothing to do with eagles

F

2014 — FALCON: FAst Localization algorithm based on a CONtinuous-space formulation …has nothing to do with falcons
2015 — FROG: FingeRprinting Ontology of Genomic variations …has nothing to do with frogs
2017 — FROGS: Find, Rapidly, OTUs with Galaxy Solution …also has nothing to do with frogs

G

2015 — GECKO: GEnome Comparison with K-mers Out-of-core …has nothing to do with geckos
2009 — GORILLA: Gene Ontology enRIchment anaLysis and visuaLizAtion …has nothing to do with gorillas
2018 — GRASShopPER: GPU overlap GRaph ASSembler using Paired End Reads …has nothing to do with grasshoppers

H

2010 — HAMSTeRS: Haemophilia A Mutation, Structure, Test, and Resource Site…has nothing to do with hamsters

I

2013 — INSECT: IN-silico SEarch for Co-occurring Transcription factors …has nothing to do with insects

J

2014 — JAGuaR: Junction Alignments to Genome for RNA-seq reads … has nothing to do with jaguars

K

L

M

2002 — MOUSE: Mitochondrial and Other Useful SEquences …has nothing to do with mice
2014 — MONGOOSE: MetabOlic Network GrOwth Optimization Solved Exactly …has nothing to do with mongooses

N

O

2013 — ORCA: mOdel-dRiven disCovery and Analysis …has nothing to do with orcas

P

2015 — PANDA: Pathway AND Annotation explorer …has nothing to do with pandas
2005 — PANTHER: Protein ANalysis THrough Evolutionary Relationships …has nothing to do with panthers
2014 — PIGEONS: Photographically InteGrated En-suite for the OligoNucleotide Screening …has nothing to do with pigeons
2014 — PuFFIN: Positioning for Fuzzy and FIxed Nucleosomes …has nothing to do with puffins

Q

2018 — QuOKKA: Quantitative predictor Of Kinase family-specific Kinome and phosphorylation Annotation — a phosphorylation-site prediction tool …has nothing to do with quokkas

R

2013 — RAVEN: Reconstruction, Analysis and Visualization of mEtabolic Networks …has nothing to do with ravens

S

2006 — SPIDer: Saccharomyces Protein-protein Interaction Database …has nothing to do with spiders
2009 — SHRiMP: SHort Read Mapping Package …has nothing to do with shrimps

T

2008 — TiGER: Tissue-specific Gene Expression and Regulation …has nothing to do with tigers

U

V

2018 — ViPeR: Visualization Pipeline for RNA-seq analysis — an RNA-seq workflow …has nothing to do with vipers

W

2007 — WASP: Web-based Allele-Specific PCR assay designing tool for detecting SNPs and mutations — a primer design tool for SNP genotyping… has nothing to do with wasps (this acronym is almost not bogus apart from the fact that it should at least include an 'A' at the end for 'assay', i.e. WASPA)

X

Y

Z

2004 — ZEBRA: Zebra finch Expression BRain Atlas…has nothing to do with zebras

Other suggestions welcome! Only requirements are that:

The name is bogus, i.e. not a straightforward acronym and worthy of a JABBA award
The acronym is named after an animal (or animal grouping)
The software/tool has nothing to do with the animal in question