Woodland Park Zoo Asks Public To Help Name Baby Lemur

SEATTLE — The Woodland Park Zoo is asking for the public's help picking a name for one of their new baby red ruffed lemurs.

In March, the zoo welcomed a healthy trio of babies from first-time mother Sally. Their dad is unknown, but may later be determined through a lemur paternity test.

Two of the baby lemurs will be named by friends of the zoo, but Woodland Park is asking for everyone else to vote on a name for the third. The zoo has picked four names out for everyone to choose between — all four names are Malagasy, the national language of lemur's native Madagascar. They are:

• Lanitra (law-NEE-truh), meaning "sky".
• Masoandro (mas-oh-AND-roh), meaning "sun".
• Orana (oh-RAW-nuh), meaning "rain".
• Ravina (ruh-VEE-nuh), meaning "leaf".

Anyone interested in casting their vote can do so by visiting the zoo's website.

Sally and her triplets are not yet ready for the public, but the zoo says they will be soon. In the meantime, they're enjoying their private lives and learning to climb and play. Despite only being a few months old, they can already jump up to two feet.

Each of the babies weighs between 2 and 2.1 pounds. Red ruffled lemurs usually reach maturity in three to four years, and can grow to weigh up to a maximum of nine pounds. The animals mostly eat fruit, though sometimes they snack on leaves and shoots. Unfortunately, the animals are critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss.