I'm interested to see what people's opinions are of names. Should there be a particular convention for naming animals in a zoo? Do you think a name influences an animal's popularity and media appeal significantly? Is there any animal that isn't named in your local zoo that you think deserves a name?
I'm a fan of naming animals in the language of their native country eg. Thai names for Asian elephants, Swahili names for African lions. I like the naming convention of naming animals with names starting with the first letter of their mother's name. Eg. Shiba, a chimpanzee at Taronga Zoo has offspring called Shabani, Samaki, Sembe and Sudi. This convention is especially useful in situations where there is more than one breeding female in a group (eg. a giraffe herd or a chimpanzee community) as it allows you to quickly see who is the offspring of who if you're not 100% familiar with the group. The only time I think this naming convention should be swerved is if the animal is high profile like a Giant Panda or possibly an elephant (depending on the herd size). I defiantely feel short names, and especially those that resemble human names have an appeal for the wider public. When Wellington Zoo's young male chimpanzee, Beni, died recently, hundreds of people wrote in saying their kid loved seeing him because their name was Ben etc. It's hard to imagine the other young chimapanzee like his brother Bakari making the same connection through their name alone. Visitor seems equally enamoured by the idea of sharing names with Cara, Sally and Samantha at the Wellington Zoo. If the animal is unique or highly endangered then I doubt it being given a long or unpronouceable name would unduly hinder it's popularity, but I strongly believe it would enhance it if it had a short name that people can connect with. At Auckland Zoo, Nisha the Sumatran tigeress had a huge fan following. Since her death and despite appearing on the Zoo TV series and giving birth to triplets, her sister Molek (with a less humanised name) has struggled to attract the same following.
