snow monkey

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Snow monkey at Lincoln Park Zoo names her baby by touchscreen

Apr 23, 2016 | WLS-AM Staff

Snow monkey Izumi and her one-month-old girl, Iwaki. | Christopher Bijalba / Lincoln Park Zoo

(CHICAGO) A snow monkey chose the name for her one-month-old baby this week using a touchscreen computer at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Izumi, 11, was given two options on the touchscreen computer in the zoo’s state-of-the-art cognition cube at the macaque exhibit, according to a statement from the North Side zoo.

Her choices were Ikoma or Iwaki, both Japanese cities, names chosen to pay homage to the macaques’ native habitat. She chose Iwaki.

The female infant was born March 18, the first of two spring snow monkey births at the zoo. Eleven-year-old Ono gave birth on April 13. The second infant’s gender has not yet been determined.

Izumi, the highest ranking female in the zoo’s snow monkey troupe, is also the most active participant and one of the fastest touchscreen problem-solvers when working with researchers in the cube, according to the zoo.

Both baby snow monkeys are on exhibit daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Regenstein Macaque Forest.

New mom Izumi picked the name Iwaki for her female infant using a touchscreen computer at the Lincoln Park Zoo. | Christopher Bijalba / Lincoln Park Zoo

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

May 31, 2015 | WLS-AM Staff

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.