Japan Zoo Apologizes To Royal Family For Naming Monkey ‘Charlotte’
In what was a definitely an “oops” situation, a zoo in southwestern Japan named a macaque monkey, born the day after the new Royal princess, by the same first name, Charlotte.
While the naming was apparently in honor of the newborn Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, it seems the the general public in Japan and most likely the Royal family itself were not amused. Protests were apparently launched stating that the naming of the monkey was disrespectful to the British Royal family.
Wednesday saw the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden in Oita Prefecture backtracking on their decision to call their new arrival “Charlotte.”
According to Kyodo News, the zoo is popular as a feeding ground for wild macaques in the surrounding area and every time a new baby is born, they ask the general public to suggest and vote for a suitable name for the newborn.
Zoo In Japan Apologizes For Naming Baby Monkey After Princess Charlotte: A zoo in Japan has apologized for nam… http://t.co/tmI4V1rVR2
— Andrew (@Andrewdavid711) May 7, 2015
Apparently this time the name Charlotte came up tops, with 59 out of 853 total votes, as people were excited about the arrival the previous day into the British Royal family of newborn Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana to Prince William and his lovely wife Kate.
The Mirror Online reports that, besides the new member of the Royal family, other popular names in the running included Kei, named for a popular Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori and another choice was Elsa, after the character in the ever-popular Disney movie, Frozen. They probably should have gone with Elsa as it turns out.
When the zoo announced the winning name for the healthy baby girl macaque on Wednesday morning, they were instantly bombarded with phone calls and email messages from the outraged public, demanding they retract the chosen name as it was insulting to the British Royal family.
They asked the zoo what reaction they would have received from the Japanese people if they had chosen a name from Japan’s own imperial family for the little newborn monkey.
Japanese zoo sorry for naming monkey after Princess Charlotte: Visitors’ votes to name macaque in honour of ne… http://t.co/xf75AwNEvW
— THAILAND (@nakhon224) May 7, 2015
According to a zoo official, they are now discussing a possible name change for the macaque, so the Japanese public and, indeed, the Royal family themselves, can breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile if the baby looks anything like the photo at the top of this article, it sure is cute!
[Image: Macaque mother and baby – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Pavel]
