Zoo Knoxville invites the public to help choose the name for the baby silvered leaf langur that surprised everyone with his birth in late 2017.  

The bright orange baby boy was born on December 21, just one week after the family of silvered leaf langurs, made up of male Walter, mother Teagan and Teagan’s adolescent daughter Melody, had arrived in Knoxville on December 14 from the Santa Ana Zoo in California.  New mother Teagan had shown no signs of pregnancy or labor leading up to the birth.  Langur babies will keep their striking coloring for three to six months, then begin to transition to darker fur like the other members of their group.

Names up for vote are:
• Knox, in honor of his birth city 
• Opie, a nod to his impish appearance 
• Smokey, an homage to the east Tennessee region and his eventual color 
• Bob, a play on the acronym of “bright orange baby”
• Treble, a name complimentary to his sister Melody  

Zoo Knoxville is one of only five zoos in the country to work with this species, which is threatened in their native range in Borneo and Sumatra, and the southwestern Malay peninsula.  Their habitat is being destroyed by logging and the development of palm oil plantations. The species is also threatened by hunting and by capture for the pet trade.

The langurs are the first residents of Zoo Knoxville’s Langur Landing, which will be opening in conjunction with the new Gibbon Trails habitats in the Boyd Family Asian Trek with an official ribbon-cutting on Friday, March 2.  Zoo annual passholders and Circle of Friends members are invited for an exclusive preview weekend March 2, 3 and 4 and the new habitats open to the public on Monday, March 5. 

Votes may be cast online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J5NQ96T and the link can be found on the Zoo Knoxville Facebook page.  Voting is open until midnight Thursday, March 1.  Zoo officials will announce the winning name at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, March 2, 2018, at 10:30 a.m.