New year, new rhino -- Potter Park Zoo in Lansing hosts baby rhino naming contest

Potter Park Zoo in Lansing is holding a contest to name its newborn baby black rhino. (WDIV)

LANSING, Mich. – Potter Park Zoo is asking for the public’s help in naming a new baby black rhino.

The baby rhino is 8-days-old and was born Dec. 24.

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Video of the baby rhino can be seen below.

The contest runs until Jan. 8 at 11:59 p.m.

Potter Park Zoo has narrowed the baby rhino’s name down to six names:

  • Enzi -- Means “the world” or "powerful in Swahili
  • Azizi -- Means “precious treasure” in Swahili
  • Jaali -- Means “powerful” in Swahili
  • Bash -- Means “forerunner” in Afrikaans
  • Mosi -- Means “the first-born” in Swahili
  • Reggie -- Typically short for Reginald, from the Latin Reginaldus,

To vote, applicants are asked to make a donation to Potter Park Zoo. Every $5 counts as a vote -- for example, a $25 donation would count as five votes.

All donations will go to further development of the zoo’s animal health program, which will help all animals at Potter Park Zoo.

Exclusive artwork made by rhinos will be given to three voters whose names will be drawn at random.

To donate -- and to vote -- visit Potter Park Zoo’s official website here.

Black rhinos used to be the most numerous of all rhinos, having hundreds of thousands in the wild in 1900. That number has dropped significantly since and the black rhino is now classified as critically endangered by the Red List of Threatened Species with three subspecies declared extinct.

The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates there are less than 5,500 black rhinos in the wild.


About the Author

Dane is a producer and media enthusiast. He previously worked freelance video production and writing jobs in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts. Dane graduated from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.

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