Audubon Zoo’s baby orangutan needs a name!
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NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) — A baby orangutan at Audubon Zoo is ready to be named!
Managers have waited since its birth on Christmas Eve to narrow down a selection of names, and now they want the public to help decide the winner.
Read more: Baby orangutan at Audubon Zoo shows signs of improvement
The names are as follows:
- Rudy – short for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in honor of the child’s birthday on December 24 and the name of the famous Notre Dame football underdog who beat all odds
- Roux – French for a reddish brown like the color of an orangutan’s fur and the thickening base used to make okra
- Maymuun – a name meaning lucky, blessed or one who prospers in Sumatra, the natural habitat of Sumatran orangutans
And you can vote here. Closing of votes on February 16 at 5 p.m.
The infant team monitors him 24/7 and has been bottle-feeding him since birth. Her twin was stillborn. Zoo staff are still awaiting autopsy results to determine what happened.
He spends most of his days visually meeting the rest of the group of orangutans but still separated.
Largely due to habitat loss, Sumatran orangutans are classified as “critically endangered”, according to scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Infant orangutans in similar difficulty in other zoos have been reintroduced to their parents sometimes at three or four months of age. Assuming all goes well, they’ll be spending time together before the big public premiere.
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