News Flash

The Spring River Park and Zoo’s new longhorn cattle duo is close to getting official names. The choices of what to call the two longhorns are down to the short lists, and the public is asked to vote for their favorites.

Throughout December, the zoo collected name suggestions from the public in order to select monikers for its pair of 1-year-old male longhorns. Zookeepers have narrowed the name suggestions down to five choices for each longhorn. The possibilities for the red-and-white longhorn are Chisum, Poncho, Milo, Flynn and Sitting Bull. The final list for the black-and-white longhorn contains Garrett, Lefty, Otis, Rider and Cochise.

People can vote for their name choices at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/longhorntop5. The voting will be open through Jan. 10. The winning names will be announced Saturday, Jan. 19, at a special event at 1 p.m. at the longhorn exhibit at the zoo. The citizens who submitted the names that are eventually chosen as the winners will each receive a Spring River Zoo 2019 Calendar. Those calendars, which feature animals at the zoo, can also be purchased at the zoo for $15.

These two longhorns, originally from Texas, were purchased from the Roswell Livestock Auction yard by Friends of the Spring River Zoo. The purpose of purchasing them was to provide the zoo’s older longhorn, Geronimo, with some company.