The Herald-Dispatch | 946 5th Ave Huntington, WV
7-day Archive
Stories from:


Baby bearcat is named Lucy

May 09, 2008 @ 10:02 AM

By The Associated Press

Herald-Dispatch.com

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Zoo has settled on Lucy as the name for its baby bearcat after receiving about 2,000 suggestions in a contest that started last month.


The name has a double tie-in with the nearby University of Cincinnati. The bearcat is the mascot and nickname of university sports teams, and the middle two letters of Lucy are “UC.”


It is also a play on “I Love Lucy.” The resident male bearcat at the zoo is named Ricky.
The formal name for a bearcat is a binturong (BIHN’-too-rahng), a catlike creature native to southeast Asia.


Lucy was born in Texas in January. The zoo’s last bearcat, named Alice, died in 2003.