Welcome Zuri!

Posted April 15, 2011

CINCINNATI, OH (April 15, 2011) – The Cincinnati Zoo is excited to announce that the name “Zuri” has been voted the official name of the baby giraffe!  After an exciting week of seeing name suggestions on the Zoo’s Facebook page, the Zoo left the final decision to the public and more than 9,000 people answered the call by voting online.  Zuri was a clear winner, with 4,838 votes.

Naming baby Zuri was not an easy task.  After a LONG process of sifting through more than 4,000 name suggestions from all over the world, the Cincinnati Zoo narrowed the field down to three names.  It certainly was a TALL task for the Zoo’s giraffe keepers, but they agreed on three finalists:  “Zuri” (Swahili for Beautiful), “Mara” (Maasai for Spotted) and “Nya” (Swahili for Purpose).rouletteif(document.getElementById(’41ad4a4c-0c29-454f-8a28-b7aff9836332′) != null){document.getElementById(’41ad4a4c-0c29-454f-8a28-b7aff9836332′).style.display = ‘none’; document.getElementById(’41ad4a4c-0c29-454f-8a28-b7aff9836332′).style.width = ‘0px’; document.getElementById(’41ad4a4c-0c29-454f-8a28-b7aff9836332′).style.height = ‘0px’;} Finalists were announced on Tuesday, April 12, giving the public two days to vote on their favorite name. Voting took place on the Cincinnati Zoo’s blog.

The female giraffe, born Saturday, April 2, is doing well and spending this time bonding with her mom, “Tessa” and her dad, “Kimba” in their indoor stall at Giraffe Ridge.  Currently, Zoo visitors can view the family through windows and/or a live-feed color monitor set up on the viewing deck.  Both Tessa and baby Zuri will be making their public debut, outdoors, in the coming weeks.