Team Swift and Kelce or Barbie and Ken? Toronto Zoo is home to 2 new critters and needs help naming them
With nearly every dynamic duo comes a memorable set of names, and the Toronto Zoo is tapping Torontonians to name a pair of animals that just arrived to the city.
On Friday, the zoo announced it is now home to two young tamanduas, also known as lesser anteaters. These animals are often found throughout South America and have sticky tongues that can extend up to 40 centimetres long (between 16 to 18 inches).
Rebecca Rice, one of the wildlife care keepers, told CP24 that tamanduas can eat up to 9,000 ants or termites a day, and have claws that can break down termite mounds and tree limbs (and trunks).
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“We have a male and a female and they’re roughly the same age, just over a year, so they’re both still very young, and we actually need the public’s help to help name them,” Rice told CP24.
The keepers came up with five sets of names, most of which pay homage to beloved fictional characters.
Leaning into the Barbiemania that has sunk its bubble gum pink heels back in society after Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar-grossing “Barbie” project is Barbie and Ken.
Cartoon-lovers may remember the pink and green-haired fairy god parents, Cosmo and Wanda, in the Nickledon’s “Fairly OddParents.” Disney fans will recognize Bruno and Mirabel, two of the Madrigals from the musical “Encanto,” and Pacha and Yzma from the 2000 Disney movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove.”
“We also just got two new armadillos to the zoo, Kuzco and Kronk,” Rice explained.
The last pair of names is Swift and Kelce, named after none other than popstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight-end (and her boyfriend), Travis Kelce.
While the zoo is asking the public to cast their votes, the tamanduas are not yet viewable to guests.
“Hopefully they’re going to be on display in our kids section or Discovery Zone, but we have to wait for the temperature to go up a little bit,” Rice said. “It has to be at least 15 degrees [Celsius] before we can let them go outside, and because they are young, and they’re not used to being in a loud zoo environment, we’re going to do it very slowly.”
In the future, Rice hopes the tamanduas can go for habitat walks around the zoo where visitors can get up close and personal with the critters.
Torontonians can go online to cast their votes on their favourite pair of names up until Feb. 6.
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