We wanted this one to be true, we really did.
Despite reports to the contrary by numerous sources throughout the worldwide web, a baby gorilla born in a zoo in China has not been given the rather fantastic moniker, Harambe McHarambeface.
A report that surfaced on bostonleader.com at the weekend suggested that, following a massive social media campaign, a contest asking the public to vote on a name for a baby gorilla born in Jinhua Zoo resulted in 93% of voters plumping for Harambe McHarambeface over the next most popular choice, Heijin.
The name, of course, originates from two sources. Harambe, as you will no doubt know, was the name of the gorilla that was killed at a zoo in Cincinnati in May when a three-year old boy climbed into his enclosure.
The other part of the name, the McFace bit, derives from ultimately unsuccessful attempts by the British public to name a new polar research ship Boaty McBoatface, a name which topped a public vote but was ignored in favour of the name, the RRS Sir David Attenborough.
Such was the viral potential behind the Harambe McHarambeface story – attempts to name a baby gorilla born in Philadelphia Zoo earlier this year as ‘Harambe’ proved unsuccessful – it was picked up by a number of media outlets worldwide, including the Metro and the The Mirror.
Although the website claims that the Boston Leader has been “bringing you Boston’s best news since 1932,” the website was only set up on September 9 and the zoo in question, the Jinhua Zoo, has not responded to contact from the Daily Mail.
In fact, there are no gorillas listed on its official website, where there have been no updates since 2013, nor has there been much activity on their social media platforms, which were last active in May of this year.
Some things really are just too good to be true.
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