A Nile hippopotamus calf born at the Dehiwala National Zoological Gardens, just south of Colombo, finally has a name — and it came from one of the thousand or so Sri Lankan schoolchildren who entered a public contest to choose it.
Zoo officials launched the naming competition as part of celebrations marking the zoo's 90th anniversary, inviting children across the country to submit suggestions for the newborn calf. Nearly 1,000 entries came in, according to Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror, which covered the contest from its launch. A zoo committee ultimately settled on "Momo," a suggestion first put forward by a young entrant named Avandha Tamari.
The name was unveiled at a ceremony at the zoo on Thursday, timed to coincide with Sri Lanka's observance of World Children's Day, according to Newswire.lk. The event drew families and schoolchildren to see the calf, who officials say has quickly become one of the zoo's most popular attractions among young visitors.
Dehiwala Zoo, founded in the 1930s, has long leaned on its hippo enclosure as a crowd favorite — a "drawcard," as one longtime local newspaper once put it — and this is not the first time the zoo has turned to the public to help name a new arrival. Earlier this year it ran a similar competition for a pair of lion cubs, part of a broader push by Sri Lanka's National Zoological Gardens Department to use naming contests as a low-cost way to build public engagement, particularly among children, around conservation and animal care.
For now, Momo remains with her mother at the zoo's hippo enclosure, where keepers say she is healthy and adjusting well. Officials have not announced any public meet-and-greet events yet, but with the calf having already inspired a nationwide naming contest, zoo staff say they expect her to remain a draw well beyond this week's ceremony.