Chicago's Otter Pup Gets a Name, Explores New Home for the First Time

The Shedd Aquarium has finally settled on a name for the rescued otter pup that caused the entire city of Chicago (and, uh, me) to lose its (and my) shit. Say goodbye to to Pup 681 and hello to… Luna!

The Shedd partnered with Good Morning America to put the name of the pup up for a vote. Over 10,000 people voted, according to a release from the aquarium, and this morning, the winning name was announced at an event for Shedd members and broadcast on GMA. In addition to shedding her robo-otter name, today marked the first time Luna was able to explore what will eventually be her home in the otter habitat and sounds like she’s doing pretty well. From the release:

…the pup is growing quickly and successfully reaching new milestones everyday including diving, foraging for food, grooming on her own and most recently the animal care team introduced four types of seafood to her diet.

The marine mammal team at Shedd provided name choices, which reflected geographic native habitats of southern sea otters – a threatened species. Luna is derived from Half Moon Bay, the area close to where the pup was rescued.

Look at her swim! Look at her dive! Look at her little flipper feet!

Luna, who now weighs 11 pounds, won’t be viewable to the public until next year, so until then, we’ll just have to be satisfied with watching baby otter videos so many times that YouTube flags your account and alerts the Chicago Police Department of a possible Luna kidnapping threat. Whatever. Worth it.