Still Life with Robin: New Parents in the Neighborhood

Photo by National Zoo

by Peggy Robin

Congratulations to new parents who had a son on Monday, September 12 – a little cutie-pie born in Woodley Park. You know I’m talking about a baby organgutan, right? Here’s the announcement from the National Zoo on behalf of the Batang (the mom) and Kyle (the dad), both nineteen years old:

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/orangutan-born-smithsonians-national-zoo

The Zoo reports the baby is yet unnamed, which brings me to a subject that has been nagging at me for nearly a full year, and that is the naming of its previous most-celebrated newborn, the panda cub, Bei Bei -- something I still think the Zoo handled very badly. There used to be a set system in place for the naming of the cubs: the Zoo waited out the first hundred days (in keeping with Chinese tradition) before announcing the baby’s name. In the intervening time, the Chinese government, which owns the pandas (they are merely here on loan) would come up with a handful of acceptable names, and the Zoo would hold an online popularity contest for the public. After the voters had picked their favorite, the panda would be given its name.

Well, that wasn't what happened with Bei Bei,. Just one year ago from Monday (September 25 is the first anniversary of the naming), the Chinese government unexpectedly put the kibosh on even this limited form of popular vote, and on the 35th day after the birth, unilaterally decreed that the baby would be called Bei Bei. It’s not that it’s a worse name than Bao Bao (the top vote-getter for the previous panda cub, born two years earlier), but that they broke the rules. This time we didn't even get to hear the choices! On top of that, they quashed a grass-roots naming-rights insurgency being led by Washington Post columnist John Kelly, who had started his own campaign for a write-in choice in the poll he assumed would be set up – and the name he wanted for the baby was Elvis. (See http://wapo.st/2cWYSsy0.)

It would have been such a great thing if that name had won! I thought so at the time, and I have never let go of the notion. And here we are again, with a very adorable little Zoo baby in our midst…unnamed as of yet. It wiggles and rocks and rolls more like the King than any roly-poly panda cub could hope to do. (Might have something to do with being a fellow primate.)

So let’s do it – let’s name this baby Elvis! Elvis Orangutan – it has a ring to it!  If you’re on board, you can tweet to the National Zoo at @NationalZoo.

P.S. There was no email address listed on the Zoo’s “Contact Us” page at https://nationalzoo.si.edu/about/contact-us. Does that tell you something about how much they want to hear from us?

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Still Life With Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays. Peggy tweets @StillLifewRobin