... don't forget about the "Monkey Bum" !!

It may be that in English there is a similar expression. In dutch we have "an elephant in a porcelain closet". It would seem the opening is as subtle as that.

For most of the other animal (and other) names, I think a lot of blame has to go to mostly English players. In the 70s and later they tended to toy with very weird opening moves and attached names to match to them.

Well in most cases the names seem to be associated with the visual impression the pieces and particularly the pawns make.

I recall some disagreement with this in a BCE ("before crash era") thread, but I had always thought that the Dragon was named because the black pawns - from d6 to h7 at least - look like a dragon's back.

Equally, the Orangutan is because the pawn on b4 creates the impression of a long gangling arm; and the Hippopotamus surely speaks for itself.

With the Snake and the Vulture, the names refer to a particular piece's movement: in the Snake, the bishop 'snakes' its way from f8-d6-c7-a5; while in the Vulture, the knight 'swoops' to e4 to prey on the slightly weakened dark squares in White's camp.

As for the Elephant, well, I have no idea about that, I'm afraid!