Japanese Zoo Worries It Might Have Offended Princess Charlotte By Naming A Monkey After Her
Little baby Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge has a delightful and appropriate name for a royal baby. It is such a nice name that a zoo in Japan thought it might also be a delightful and appropriate name for a baby monkey, but now the zoo is considering renaming the monkey because people got pretty upset about it.
(Related: Royal Scandal: Princess Charlotte’s Baby Hat Was On Backwards, But Everyone Wants It Anyway)
According to Rocket News 24, the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Gardens in Oita city has a marvelous colony of wild macaques. The macaques come to eat at the zoo and are quite beloved by visitors to the area, especially in spring when they have all their babies.
When looking for a photo to illustrate this post, I discovered that our stock photography service has a lot of photos of baby macaques, and now I understand why people are so excited about the Takasakiyama babies, because baby macaques are adorable. (That is also why you are getting so many baby macaque photos in this post. It is Friday, so I’m just going to use up my entire photo allotment bringing you pictures of zoo babies, because it is Friday and looking at zoo babies is a good way to spend a Friday afternoon.)
The Takasiyama Park says it expects to see about 100 baby macaques born in the area this spring, but park tradition holds that they hold a vote to name the first baby monkey born every year. This year, the monkey is a baby girl born on May 6. When the zoo checked the name ballot box, it discovered that Charlotte was far and away the most popular baby name choice for the little monkey, which is surely adorable.
Since announcing the name, however, the park has received a number of complaints insisting that it is rude or offensive to name a monkey after the royal baby.
“Naming it after the princess is disrespectful to the U.K.,” one Japanese Internet user said.
“How would you feel if a monkey were born in a zoo in London and they gave it a name from the Japanese imperial family?” another asked.
The zoo clearly does not want to offend the Cambridges, and in light of the controversy the park said it would hold a conference to discuss the propriety of naming the baby monkey Charlotte. The Oita City mayor will reportedly make the final decision about the macaque’s name.
Speaking purely for myself, a recent convert to baby macaque fandom, the park should feel more than welcome to name the new baby after me, because baby macaques are adorable and I would consider it an honor. Also I think Elizabeth is an excellent name for a tiny baby macaque, and I can’t imagine the queen would mind either.
Photos: Shutterstock
