Whenever you hear that a company or organization has decided to allow the public to name something new without any limitations, you get the strong feeling that they’re headed for a total disaster. Who could forget Mountain Dew’s 2012 campaign to name a new flavor of their soft drink, which culminated in a win for “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong?”
Now we’re worried about a whole new naming campaign going the way of Boaty McBoatFace. An Australian zoo has revealed that a young, rare, white koala joey has been born on the premises and they also want the public to name it.
The aptly named Australian Zoo, based in Beerwah just north of Brisbane, explained on their Facebook page that the koala youngling isn’t an albino, but probably has a recessive gene that is causing her unusual fur color. They also note that there’s a chance that she will “morph into a greyer color as she grows, but right now she really stands out!”
She was probably born a few months ago, but she’s only just emerged from her mother’s pouch. The zoo staff describe her as “increasingly adventurous and often climbs around with the other babies chewing on eucalyptus.”
She sounds delightfully adorable, so with caution, we clicked on the Facebook post asking for suggestions, expecting to find the worst echelons of the Internet throwing as many offending or mind-numbing names at the zoo.
Remarkably, at the time of writing, all the suggestions seem pretty sensible – that, and overly saccharine.
“She is so cute!” one denizen of the Web declares. “My suggestions: little miss sunshine, miss candy fluffy gray, miss cookie, sweet cake!”
Note: Koalas are not confectionary. What else do we have? Other suggestions include “Bella”, “Zoey”, “Floss”, “Snowy”, “Luna”, and “Moonbeam”. One user has suggested “Casper”, while another has opted for “Lulu”, which is apparently “Swahili for pearl”.
Regardless of the suggestions, everyone agrees that the little white koala is unbearably cute. “OMG WE HAVE TO GO BACK NOW. THAT BABY NEEDS ME TO HOLD HER!” says one mildly excited individual.
So do you think you’ve got what it takes to name a rare, white baby koala and still maintain the integrity of your moral compass? If so, click here and let Australia Zoo know.
Good luck – especially to whomever is moderating the comment section on that page.
3