African Lion named John

African Lion named John

First of all, I mean no offence to forum members who are named John.

But it seems like a surprisingly mundane name for a zoo animal these days. All our animals get exotic sounding names. (Our last litter of lion cubs, for example, were named Azizi, Ayutonde, Abuto).

Arizona Docent said:

First of all, I mean no offence to forum members who are named John.

But it seems like a surprisingly mundane name for a zoo animal these days. All our animals get exotic sounding names. (Our last litter of lion cubs, for example, were named Azizi, Ayutonde, Abuto).

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"John was named after former Zoo director John Berry, who was instrumental in helping the Zoo build its lion pride."

From here: Lion Updates - National Zoo

Did they ever put the female out on exhibit

bgeezle513 said:

Did they ever put the female out on exhibit

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I was told in July that Imani would be rotated with John. Judging from Flickr, that doesn't look like that's happened yet.

thanks .. what about any construction updates on Africa

bgeezle513 said:

thanks .. what about any construction updates on Africa

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Sorry for the late reply, I wanted to wait and answer this after I went to the zoo. The outline for the wild dog exhibit has been set out. It appears to be a large rectangle, opposing from the circle design in the blueprints. Then more plants and tall grasses were added on the divider that separates the lions from the hoofstock. This, obviously, is so that the prey will think not to meet the predator.

Thane Maynard is now saying that John was named after the CEO that was in charge of building Africa.