Here in the animal department naming an animal can be very tricky. Not because we are stuck on thinking of a name, but usually its because we can never agree on one.Sometimes it can become a rather comical heated debate amongst passionate keepers(*cough..me). In the past we’ve done the voting process or had certain keepers pick certain animals names. When we had parakeets for our Math Core now named Math Moves exhibit, I remember we were happy because there were enough birds that each individual keeper could pick their own name.
Some animals already come with names(Mimi,Auggie), some animals have had a contest in picking a name(Gus,Max),some animals are named by the keepers (Kit,Kat,Scout)and some are named by educators(Phoebe).
I have known other institutions that do not name their animals at all. They usually have a number like our wolves do.
The lemur center names their lemurs by specie: the ring tails all have Greek names or all of the aye-ayes have creepy names like Voldemort.
Some places have categories per year.Like 2011 was the year of the soda so their names would be Sprite or RC /2010 was year of the candy:Reese or Mars
If you have ever wondered how a certain animal got its name or maybe what the name of an exhibit turtle is just ask us in the comments section.
Do the animals whose names go together (like Sunny and Cher did) usually arrive together, or does someone pick a name for one and then a theme continues as new animals arrive? Thanks for this fun post!
Libby
Sonny and Cher arrived together with those names.
Kit and Kat were named after characters from the series Thundercats. So, its pretty much random what they are named. We are now in the process of voting on names of our 2 new Marine Toads.
How about Gunny and Leather Neck for the two new “Marine” Toads
The suggestions have been submitted for the toads and I think there is supposed to be a decision soon. Probably not as cool 😉
The names were picked and Luigi and Bufo were the winners.
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