NEW YORK: For just 15 bucks, anyone can name a Bronx Zoo-based Madagascar hissing cockroach as a Valentine's Day expression of love or... hate, says Debbie Schneiderman, executive director of membership & digital at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo.
"Certainly, people can name it after an ex, or they can support someone who's recently had a breakup by naming it after their ex," she says.
"But by far the majority of the roaches that get named are in a loving fashion, like it is for people... as a gesture of love, as a gesture of friendship."
For example, parents name roaches for their kids because the children love the bugs.
Out of 20 known species of large hissing roaches from Madagascar, many are kept as pets, according to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
They are very social creatures. In their natural habitat in Madagascar, an island off the southeast coast of Africa, they live with their parents and siblings in rotting leaves, wood, and debris.
An adult Madagascar hissing cockroach can measure (5cm to 7.5 cm), which makes it one of the largest species of its kind. Unlike most cockroaches, they are wingless.
The "hissing" sound, which comes from expelling air through their bodies, is their primary defence, to frighten potential predators, as they cannot fly and are easily captured.
They make four separate "hiss" calls. There is a male combat hiss, two mating and courtship hisses, and an alarm hiss that sounds like that of a snake.
Madagascar hissing cockroaches are not considered pests and do not seek to live in human dwellings.
People express strong reactions to the Bronx Zoo's initiative, says Schneiderman.
"We get a lot of email that says, 'Oh, my God, eek, I hate this!' But equally or maybe even a little bit more, we get people who just love it."
About 10 years ago, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Bronx Zoo decided to end the programme, but, despite the campaign not being advertised, they received 450 donations to name a roach and had to send out naming certificates after Valentine's Day.
"Then we thought, 'Oh, we just need to do this every year'," says Schneiderman.
Since the start of the campaign in 2011, over 54,000 Madagascar hissing cockroaches got brand new names, raising US$1.1 million for the Wildlife Conservation Society and Bronx Zoo.
"We like to say flowers wilt, chocolates melt, and this lasts forever," says Schneiderman. "So you have forever symbolically named a roach at the Bronx Zoo."
And it's very New York, she adds.
"The thing that I love most about this programme is it is so iconically New York. Nothing says New York to me like naming a cockroach for Valentine's Day," she says.
In addition to a digital certificate, the gift can also include a virtual meet-up with a Madagascar hissing cockroach and roach socks and a plush. --REUTERS
