Haha. I just sent an email to the Bombcast about this. Here it is:
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Subject: The Lions Cub That Were Named After Jeff and Ryan May Be Bogus!
Hey Bomberinos,
On the August 30th episode of the Bombcast, a listener wrote in saying that he worked at a wildlife refuge in Africa where two newborn lions cubs had been named Davis and Gerstmann. The email starts at about the 124 minute mark.
The listener said that, when cubs are born, everyone at the refuge submits potential names and then votes on them. He submitted Davis and Gerstmann and was surprised and overjoyed when his submission was chosen. It was a really cool story.
On Episode 220 of the IGN podcast "Game Scoop!" (posted Friday, October 7), a listener wrote in with a virtually identical story in which the cubs were instead named Daemon and Miller after the "Game Scoop!" hosts. The reading of the email starts at 42 minutes, 30 seconds, and the story about the cubs starts at the 44 minute mark.
In both stories:
-- the listener's name was J.D.
-- the listener is a graduate student in zoology at Miami University
-- the procedure for choosing the names is the same
-- a hand is visible in the picture of the cubs
-- the hand is rubbing one of the cubs
-- the listener says which cub has which name
-- the name of the wildlife refuge is the same (Drakenstein Lion Park)
-- the refuge is in South Africa
-- exactly two cubs are born (65% of lion litters have size not equal to 2)
-- the email is long (Ryan summarized it on the Bombcast, but stated that it was long)
I went to the Drakenstein Lion Park website. It has a page (Our Lions) listing the lions at the park. None are named Davis, Gerstmann, Daemon, or Miller. By the way, people can apparently donate to adopt lions, and there is an online gift store.
I don't want to call the listener a liar. Maybe the IGN cubs are not the Giantbomb cubs. Maybe the park website has not been updated recently. But the evidence is the evidence.
I suspect that the email is a scam aimed at attracting donations or that J.D. wanted to be mentioned by another gaming podcast.
The whole thing is ironic because Jeff even jokes that the email is a "Nigerian prince" scam sent out to thousands of people.
PS. You guys rock!
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EDIT: I checked the website for the zoology department at Miami University and there doesn't seem to be any graduate student there named J.D.
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