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.