Flamingos Flock, A Baby Koala Need a Name and a New Manta Ray Rollercoaster Coming – All in San Diego

Valentine’s month in San Diego reaches out to the animal kingdom as flamingos, koalas and manta rays get headline love and attention.

Flamingos

In Lake Elsinore, flamingos can be found clustered in front of yards and businesses, all in effort to raise money for their local youth activities and scholarships.  The Rotary Club of Lake Elsinore has begun this fundraiser saying, “It’s absolutely silly and puts the ‘fun’ back into fundraising” and offers this yard “flocking” service for $50.  The goal is to “flock” someone’s yard or business and have them, in turn, flock someone else.

The Nameless Koala

The San Diego Zoo needs your help naming a new koala that was born in July.  But the gender is unknown as the joey still rests in his or her mother’s pouch.  You can vote on a name from the Zoo’s list, which are all Aboriginal names, and be a part of naming the new guy.

The Aboriginal name options and their meanings are:

Cambee (blankets), Jumbunna (talk together), Gummy (spear), Cuddelee (dog), Andi (who), Aroo (fan made of emu tail feathers) or Panda (heart).

So, on Friday, February 18th at 10:30am, the start of the Zoo’s celebration of Koalapalooza, an event sponsored by Outback Steakhouse, visitors can see in person which name won as Yabber, the baby’s mother, has the final say.  The Zoo will post the top-three-picked-names in three different trees within her exhibit and whichever tree Yabber climbs, will decide the baby koala’s name.

Vote for the name you like best here: link to vote.

Manta Rays Coast

And Sea World San Diego is adding a 100,000-gallon aquarium and outdoor manta ray pool next year to compliment their new $10-million Manta Ray roller coaster.

The Manta Coaster will be located near the Skyride and Flamingo Cove in the local marine theme park and is scheduled to be 30 feet tall with dual launch zones offering a 2-minute ride at 43 mph with a 54-foot-drop into an underground trench and a swift dip into a shallow lake.

Sea World San Diego is expected to start construction on the new coaster within the next month.

Photos courtesy of Katmere via Flickr, Erik Veleand via Creative Commons and ThisParticularGreg via Flickr.