Zoo's Meerkats Like Watermelon, But Will They Come When Called?

The Woodland Park Zoo writes to tell us that after counting more than 2,600 ballots, there are officially eight southern-African-inspired names for the mob of meerkats, back at the Zoo after a 10-year sabbatical:

The top vote getters and new names for the four female and four male meerkats, in order of greatest number of votes received, are: ZIMBA (Zambian town), NATA (southern African river), MOLOPO (southern African river), KIWANO (Kalahari fruit), KALAHARI (African desert), DINAWA (“beans” in Tswana), ACACIA (African tree), and NGAMI (lake in Botswana).

The photo above is by Dennis Dow. For more watermelon-and-meerkat viewing, visit the Zoo's blog.