video: Oregon Zoo Announces Lion Cub Names

Friday, October 10, 2014

Kirsten Nicolaisen, GoLocalPDX Digital Producer

The Oregon Zoo announced on Friday that their one-month-old lion cubs now have names: Hasani, Mashavu and Niara.

The zoo's lion keepers chose two potential names for each cub last week and invited the public to vote for their favorites on the zoo website. The selection process drew national attention and more than 10,700 votes were submitted, according to the zoo.

“A lot of animals at the zoo get their names from nations or cultures associated with their species’ native habitats,” said Laura Weiner, senior keeper for the zoo’s Africa section. “And for these cubs, we wanted to bring attention to what’s happening in their range countries. Just two decades ago, lions were plentiful in much of Africa, but today they are vanishing at alarming rates. The wild lion population is estimated to have dropped by 75 percent since 1990.”

Until all the votes were in, zoo staffers had been referring to the cubs by the last digit of the numbers they were assigned as part of the International Species Information System: 6, 7 and 8, according to the zoo. The male of the litter, previously known as cub 6, now goes by Hasani, a Swahili name meaning "handsome." Mashavu, formerly cub 7 was initially the largest cub of the group. Her name is Swahili for "chuby-cheeked." And former cub 8 is now called Niara, a Swahili name meaning "one with high purpose."

The cubs, born Sept. 8, are the first offspring for Kya the cubs' mother and Zawadi Mungu, the cubs’ father. The zoo has not yet released the cubs for public viewing, you can get a sneak preview in the videow below.