Melbourne Zoo’s baby gorilla born on 14th March 2015 received her name this week.
The Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water, Lisa Neville announced the name as Kanzi during a visit to the zoo. The name means ‘treasure’ in Swahili.
Primate manager Harna Burton explained, “We’ve just been calling her baby, little baby or little one, so now we can start getting her used to her name!”
She was on hand at the birth so was happy to see the infant named, “I feel so privileged to have witnessed such an endangered treasure coming into the world, so that name means a lot to me.”
Harna admitted that out of the four names that were up for a public vote Kanzi was her favourite. The other options were Kya, Kamari and Kibibi.
The competition run by the Herald Sun and Nine News received 4,696 entries. 1,436 of those entries voted for Kanzi to be the name.
The mother of the young gorilla is called Kimya while the father is known as Otana. They both came to the zoo in 2013 to participate in the breeding program for this species.
This was the seventh baby gorilla to be born at Melbourne Zoo.
Photo Credit: Melbourne Zoo
