Mar 11 2009
The zoo’s baby gorilla gets a name!
Until today, the San Francisco Zoo’s three-month old baby gorilla, who became famous around the world after being neglected by his mother, did not have a name.
The zoo held a naming contest. Five thousand people from 40 different countries entered. A panel of human judges chose five names, and today they took five color-coded cantaloupes, each representing a name, and gave them to the baby gorilla’s father, Oscar Jonsey, to make the final selection.
Oscar Jonsey selected the green cantaloupe, which meant he chose the name “Hasani” for his son. Hasani, which means “handsome” in Swahili, was entered in the contest by Amanda VerPloeg of Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Hasani’s surrogate mother is still being trained, and the baby is not yet on public display. But you can watch him on a “Nursery Cam” at the zoo from noon to 2:00 pm, and you can see lots of pictures and videos on the zoo’s website.
The Zoo is free, for San Francisco residents only, on the first Wednesday of every month.
Picture (c) San Francisco Zoo
