PSU community helps zoo name new gorilla 'Gus'

  Thursday, March 10, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

What’s better than one Gus Gorilla?

Two Gus Gorillas!

The Fort Worth Zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, announced on Thursday that its new western lowland gorilla baby will be named Augustus, or Gus for short. Augustus, according to the zoo, means great and magnificent.

The name was chosen based on results of an online poll the zoo conducted via social media. The zoo encouraged the public to vote on four name options: Augustus, Grover, Mosi and Crockett.

According to the zoo’s Facebook poll, “Gus” won with more than 1,700 votes, followed by Grover’s 978 votes. Mosi received 770 votes and Crockett received 247 votes.

The name Gus, which trailed in the voting early on, took a commanding lead thanks in part to the support of Pittsburg State students, staff, alumni and supporters after the university shared the poll on its social media accounts.

“With ‘Gus’ being one of the options for the new baby gorilla, we thought it would be fun to share the poll with the PSU community and try to help the name win,” said Brett Dalton, coordinator of social media for Pitt State. “It was incredible to see how quickly and how proudly our Gorillas here rallied around the name and help propel it to the top. The baby gorilla is just adorable, and we think ‘Gus’ is the perfect name for him.”

Avery Elander, public relations manager for the Fort Worth Zoo, said the zoo’s staff enjoyed receiving so much feedback from the Pitt State community.

“It’s been wonderful to watch people in Fort Worth and beyond city limits get so excited about our baby gorilla,” Elander said. “It was especially exciting to see students at Pittsburg State get so invested in a gorilla that is states away. Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered in the wild, and we hope that little Gus and Pittsburg State’s Gus can serve as ambassadors of their species.”

The zoo announced the baby’s name in a special video on Thursday. That video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzFNvKVGvEI. The zoo’s press release announcing the name is available at https://www.fortworthzoo.org/fort-worth-zoo-announces-winning-male-baby-gorilla-name.