Plum Creek Nature Center is enlisting help from its online fans to give a name to its new snake.
But “Snaky McSnakeFace” is not an option, according to a post on the nature center’s Facebook page. The joke, of course, was in reference to a similar effort in 2016, in which the voting internet public decided a new British science sea vessel should be called “Boaty McBoatface.”
To avoid a similar fate for their new resident, Will County Forest Preserve officials are offering only four naming options for the recently arrived ball python at the nature center in the Goodenow Gove Nature Preserve in Beecher.
People can vote on social media at the district’s pages on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
The four name choices for the female snake are:
* Penny, for the python’s shiny copper tones
* Mali, for the region in Africa where the snake species is native
* Cleopatra, the ancient Egyptian queen often portrayed with a snake
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* Xena, as in the strong warrior princess
Voting for the contest ends at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, according to the district’s Facebook page.
The district received the five-year-old python in early November as a rescue from a family that no longer wanted it.
“The kid (owner) got freaked about feeding time,” said Suzy Lyttle, an interpretive naturalist with the forest preserve district.
She said the snake is friendly with humans but can appear a little aggressive when it’s being fed.
The python is fed a frozen rat once every two or three weeks, Lyttle said.
She said the snake snatches the rat, rolls into a ball to squeeze it and then proceeds to slowly swallow it whole.
The snake to be named replaces a 30-year-old python named Bud who recently died at the center.
Lyttle said the younger snake is a lot more active and slithers a lot more than did Bud, who was more laid back.
Lyttle said the python will serve as a kind of slithery ambassador to educate visitors at the nature center about snakes.
“We get tons or reactions to the snake,” she said. “People either love them or hate them, but we want people to love them.”
The snake joins other reptiles at the education center, all of whom are rescues, such as a box turtle and a bearded dragon.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.