Hello, Obu: Lincoln Park Zoo’s newborn snow monkey named after public vote

Ono, a Japanese Macaque, holds her baby Obu, who was born May 2 and named Friday after a public poll online. | Lincoln Park Zoo

(Chicago) World, meet Obu.

The name of the first newborn at the Lincoln Park Zoo’s new snow monkey exhibit was announced Friday after roughly 2,100 people voted in an online poll.

Like the other snow monkeys in the group, Obu is named after a city in the species’ native habitat in Japan, according to the zoo’s website.

Osaka came in second in the online poll with 21 percent of the vote. Okuchi followed at 19 percent, Otsu at 16 percent and Obihiro at 6 percent.

His name is also part of a system that curators will use to track future generations of snow monkeys at the zoo.

“Our plan is to have kids’ names start with the first letter of mom’s name,” curator of primates Maureen Leahy said in a post on the zoo’s website. “Matrilines (lines of female descent) are really important in establishing the cool cultures we see in snow monkey troops, behaviors ranging from washing food to warming up in hot springs.”

The baby joins eight other snow monkeys at North Side zoo’s exhibit, which opened in April and features a hot spring, warm rocks and large climbing trees.

Obu and his mother, Ono, can be seen daily at the Regenstein Macaque Forest from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.