upper waypoint
Arts & Culture

The People Have Spoken! Monterey Bay Aquarium’s New Puffling Has a Name

Rae Alexandra
Thousands voted on whether a baby bird should be called Yali, Aster, Alca, Miki, Squash or Sprout.
A black puffling with downy feathers sits in the hands of someone wearing blue surgical gloves.
The newest arrival to Monterey Bay Aquarium's tufted puffin colony needed a name. The people have voted! (Courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium)

In case you’ve missed it, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has spent this entire week running An Extremely Important Voter’s Poll to name the newest puffling in its tufted puffin colony. (You get a pass for not voting so long as you don’t judge me for spending a large portion of my adult life participating in things like this.) The new puffling arrived July 26, and is being reared by tufted Puffin parents named Pickle and Yarrow.

When the contest began on Monday, aquarium fans were asked to choose between the names Yali, Aster, Alca, Miki, Squash and Sprout. Unlike the naming vote for UC Berkeley‘s campanile falcon chicks, no explanation was offered as to why these names made the aquarium’s shortlist. Googling didn’t help much either. (Try finding one definitive meaning to the word “Yali,” I dare you. It will take up your whole day.)

It was somewhat inevitable, then, that either Squash or Sprout — clearly the cutest options — were going to take the gold.

A black puffling with downy feathers sits inside a clean white litter tray.
The puffling, willing the public to not name it after Ari Aster. (Courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium)

The final result was tallied on Friday morning (to much less fanfare than I would have liked) and, indeed, the puffling’s new name is: Sprout! Please join me in kicking up some heels for this helpless little ball of downy fluff.

(Also, special shout out to Monterey Bay for the pun-tatistic message I received after taking part in the vote: “We shore appreciate your vote!” Scientists are fun!)

Sprout is the second hatchling at the puffin colony this year. The older puffling has been named Nori, after the sushi seaweed, by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s aviculturists, and is being reared by puffins named Kiska and Stella. Both pufflings were born as part of a species survival plan managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Sprout and Nori’s parents incubated their respective eggs for around six weeks each — about the same duration it will take Sprout and Nori to reach full size. The new arrivals can be seen now at the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s seabirds exhibit, just past the Open Sea display.

lower waypoint
next waypoint
Player sponsored by