Grizzlies' naming rights are up for bids
Photo courtesy San Francisco Zoo.<br> <br>Two young grizzlies caught near Ovando last year play in a tub at the San Francisco Zoo in this undated photo.
Montana's hottest sister act is once again grabbing national headlines.
The glamorous pair of young grizzlies, who narrowly escaped execution in Montana last year, are today at the center of a name-calling controversy at the San Francisco Zoo.
The siblings, now in their Terrible Two's, were captured in the Ovando area last year after the starving pair was caught sniffing around ranch buildings and generally causing mayhem. Their mother had been euthanized the previous winter and state and federal officials decided that might be the safest solution to the sister problem as well. They feared returning the grizzlies to the wild because the bears had become too accustomed to scavenging food in residential areas.
In October of 2004, the San Francisco Zoo stepped in and accepted both bears, who have since become popular zoo attractions.
Today they are known as No. 104030 and No. 104031. Of course, a lot of people there call them Blondie and Chocolate. Which is not to be confused with F-21 and F-22, their Montana monikers. Or Sassy and Rhomba, as they were nicknamed by the rancher who originally discovered them on his property.
Clearly, this name-calling had to stop. This week the zoo announced a special auction. To the highest bidder on April 29 will go the honor of naming the sisters. Zoo officials figure they'll pull in at least $30,000 with this gimmick.
The problem is there has been another naming competition going on at the same time. In November, the zoo promoted a naming contest to the public, who didn't have to pay a nickel to send in their suggestions. The only rule was all names had to be Native American. That contest was suddenly canceled this week, leaving 750 disappointed entrants.
The as-yet-unnamed bears seem unaffected by the storm. They've gained approximately 100 pounds each since leaving Montana, when they weighed between 140 and 150 pounds. Apparently it's difficult to weigh them these days, since they remain unclear on the concept of scales: Do you step on it or do you eat it?
Only 1000 grizzly bears live in the lower 48 states today, almost all of them in Montana