Yesterday was the Zoo's annual Penguin Parade. If you are not familiar with the event, the Penguin Chicks leave Fish School, a behind the scenes area where they learn how to take food by hand, be comfortable around people, and finally swim!
The event has them waddle in all their cuteness, from the west end of the Lion House to the north side of Penguin Island. There were five Chicks in the 2013 hatch, four girls and one boy. They moved quick this year and the youngest girl started out being left behind, but she soon caught up!
Seeing these little ones is always a treat, they never disappoint to be beyond adorable. Their main Keeper Anthony Brown always does a great job MC'ing and providing information about them. The other aspect of the event,, the naming contest, again was flawed. I say again because last year the gal whose name was drawn, put down a name that was completely disrespectful. I did a blog post you can search for it if interested. This year whether intentional or not, the use of the word "drawing" in reference to the naming contest was completely misleading.
The last three of the Zoo's Penguin posts, made use of the words "Royal" and "Prince" marketing this years event to go hand in hand with the birth of the Royal Baby. I had a feeling they were leading up to wanting this Penguin Chick named after the new Prince, but even I didn't see the way this would play out.
I thought it was odd that Anthony didn't draw the name (as done previously) before the Parade as noted in the event timeline. Yet after the event the Marketing (?) guy Danny got on microphone and said, "The name chosen is George Alexander Louis." Gotta say I was surprised but not surprised. Their marketing of this being a Royal Penguin Chick was literal and by George! they were going to name that Chick after the new Prince, no matter. My first thought was damn, I should have gone with my Royal option of Windsor (even though I went with first choice Neptune), but not only do I believe the Zoo Staff doesn't even know what connection that has to the Royals, they had a preconceived winning name (to match the Royal Baby) and they searched through the entries til they found one with it. In my opinion there was no drawing, the name was chosen, just like they stated. I got no problem with the name, at least its not after a ballplayer, but why not just name the Chick and not even have people think they are entering a fair drawing contest? The event would have been just as good because the Chicks are the Stars anyway.
I plan to call the Chick Windsor and the Zoo can call it George Alexander Louis and get all the Media attention that they hope to by doing so. I heard the other Chicks will be named by money donors. Will post their names here when they are available.
I had many cute photos and put them together in a Video:
