Public invited to submit names for the eagle juvenile

The name of the Verreaux’s eagle chick in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden (WSNBG) is usually announced in September through the Northsider after some consultations with the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans (BEPR).

This year is no different. The suggestions for a name which participants have emailed to the Northsider will be passed on to BEPR on Thursday, September 16, and the chick’s name should be announced just before the long weekend.

At 90 days old, BEPR monitors are at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden (WSNBG) every morning in anticipation of the juvenile’s first flight which is due any day now.

On the morning of Thursday, September 2 BEPR reported that the juvenile was jumping up and down, doing the same exercises.

“On occasions I thought it was going to take off. We will let the community know as soon as it fledges,” said BEPR Chairman, Gerald Draper.

The name-the-chick process will be as follows:

• Each person can submit three names (choices 1, 2 and 3) and then email them to northside@caxton.co.za on or before Thursday, September 16.

• In keeping with tradition, it should preferably be an African name that has some meaning or link to the garden, or to what is happening at the time.

• We ask the person submitting the names also to tell us what each name means.

• As we don’t know the gender of the bird we would like you to suggest something that is not gender-specific.

• On the closing date for the submission of names, Thursday, September 16, the names will be sent to BEPR, and BEPR Chairman Gerald Draper will submit them to his eight-men committee, where the winning submission will be revealed.

• The BEPR committee will then meet the Northsider at the garden restaurant for coffee and announce the name, and why it was chosen.

• The winner will be contacted and receive the prize of WSNBG entry vouchers.