At the same time that this blog is being posted I have sent out ATE's November e-newsletter, so everyone will get the results at the same time.

Well, it ended up not being difficult to chose the name, but only because we left it to one person. Sixty three names were submitted by 53 different people. I am pleased that so many of you got involved and had some fun with the contest. When all the names were turned into a list I sent them out to the seven main researchers who work on the Amboseli Elephant Research Project. I asked them for their two top favorites. That turned out to be a complete flop because I got 14 different names back. Fortunately, we found a brilliant solution. Erica the elephant had been named for Cristina Croze’s mother. Erica the person is a wonderful lady who will be 90 years old next year. Harvey and Cristina gave her the list to look over and she unhesitatingly chose “Errol” because she remembered Errol Flynn from her younger days. So little Errol it is. We expect him to turn into quite a swashbuckler. I’m sure he’ll also grow up to be a very handsome bull. The winning name came from Monika MacDevette.

For those of you whose names were not chosen, don’t despair I now have 62 excellent ‘E’ names that we will able to put to good use in both the EA and EB families over the next years as they produce more calves. Thank you.

To understand more about how we name elephants go to How we Name Elephant Calves on our website.