Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
However, if you're talking about wild animals, it's much better to use "male" and "female" -- if you say "boy shark" or "girl elephant" or whatever, it sounds a bit childish (or foreign).
I know, if you use "male/female" for cats it sounds close to Russian самец/самка, a bit formal. We also use "boy/girl" in Russian for pets.