ATLANTA — Zoo Atlanta's newest addition to the gorilla family now has a new name: Floyd.
The zoo revealed the name of the baby boy on Sept. 24, World Gorilla Day. The infant western lowland gorilla, the grandson of the late Willie B., turned 2 months old on the same day.
Zoo officials said “Floyd” was one of more than 100 names submitted online during a naming campaign that began Sept. 10 and ran through Sept. 20.
The name was one of three drawn at random to be featured in the gorilla habitat on World Gorilla Day. The zoo’s large family group of gorillas then entered their habitat to find three name stations, each featuring a produce-filled ice “cake.” The cakes were decorated with the three finalists, written in peanut butter. The baby gorilla's mother, Lulu, chose the “Floyd” cake first.
According to Zoo Atlanta, Kay Lie Tjauw submitted the winning name, which means “grey-haired.” It's an homage to the fact that the infant will someday grow into a silverback, the term for a mature male gorilla.
The other two featured names were Muhabura, for Mount Muhabura on the border of Rwanda and Uganda, submitted by Sage Wicinski, and DJ, for actor Dwayne Johnson, a special visitor to the Primate Team while filming at the Zoo in 2017. That name was submitted by an anonymous donor.
Funds raised from the naming campaign will benefit Zoo Atlanta’s longtime partner in gorilla conservation, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the combined threats of poaching, illegal hunting, habitat loss and emerging diseases such as Ebola have reduced the numbers of the species by 60 percent in the wild over a 25-year period. Declines have reached as much as 90 percent in some parts of their range in western Africa.
Floyd is the 24th gorilla to be born at Zoo Atlanta.
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