*Much of this article was taken from a post by by Darian Stevenson at St. Louis Magazine.
When the St. Louis Aquarium opens in Union Station this December, its inventory will include many different aquatic animals. Three 9-month-old North American River Otters from Flamingo Gardens in Florida are the aquarium’s first residents to arrive in St. Louis (well, besides Lord Stanley the blue lobster) and are patiently waiting to move into their new habitat and exhibit.
But first things first, the trio need names. That’s where St. Louisans come in: The St. Louis Aquarium has announced a naming contest for the new otter family. Aaron Sprowl, the aquarium’s curator, says the naming contest is a way to involve the St. Louis community in the aquarium’s journey.
“This is something [St. Louis] has been wanting for a long time and something they are finally getting an opportunity to have in their backyard,” Sprowl says. “It’s only right that they get the opportunity to name some of our iconic animals.”
On the aquarium’s Facebook page, users can cast their vote on their favorite set of names using different Facebook reactions: “Love” the post to vote for Splish, Splash, and Dash (the natural activities of an otter);”Haha” the post to vote for Hopper, Zephyr, and Harvey (after old train cars); and “Wow” the post to vote for Thatcher, Sawyer, and Finn (after the famous Mark Twain storybook characters).
While waiting to be moved to their new habitat, the critters have been housed at the World Bird Sanctuary, where the aquariums animal care manager Kat Echevarria has been training the otters for the past two months. She describes the otters as energetic and always on the move.
Other featured animals at the St. Louis Aquarium will include animals native to Mississippi River, including paddlefish, alligator gar, and surgeonfish, as well as underwater creatures from the Amazon and “riverways of South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.” The aquatic animals can be found in three galleries: Shard Canyon, featuring over 80 varieties of sharks and rays; The Deep, where jellyfish, eels, and sea dragons will live; and Changing Rivers, which the to-be-named otters and other freshwater aquatic animals will call home.
Want to have a say in what the aquarium’s first residents will be called? Vote for your favorite set of names on the aquarium’s Facebook page before Monday, September 23th, 2019!
