Mascot Gets New Image for the ‘90s : Zot! UCI’s Fierce Anteater Goes Surfer

Anteaters are everywhere at UC Irvine, and that’s the problem.

The university’s unusual mascot, Peter the Anteater, has proliferated far beyond the expectations of the Class of ‘69, which chose him over three other candidates in a rigged election.

Originally a takeoff on a character from the “B.C.” comic strip, Peter has suffered species confusion over the years, often appearing as a lesser anteater with a ratlike tail and threatening claws, sometimes as a tree-hanging, two-toed anteater and, occasionally, as a common aardvark.

Into the chaos stepped UCI’s new marketing director, Carl Herrman, whose last task was to design a mascot for Syracuse University’s Orangemen (without offending Orangewomen).

“I was infatuated by the anteater,” Herrman said. “But we were using so many different types on T-shirts, ads and other items that he didn’t have a clear identity.”

Herrman quickly seized on the bronze, bushy-tailed giant anteater statue that guards the university’s Bren Events Center, and set out to make the largest, most attractive member of a rather unattractive family the official anteater of UCI.

Now, after visits to zoos in San Diego, Santa Barbara and Washington to view anteaters, and armed with more than 200 anteater drawings whipped up by an Oregon graphics firm, Herrman is ready to unveil the new and anatomically correct Peter the Anteater. Peter no longer spends all his time on all fours like a dog. Gone are the talons, the oversized ears and the humpback.

In an Audubon-style drawing, the new Peter strikes a noble pose that will be used for formal occasions. He will make his debut next week on the “Anteater Express,” a fleet of university commuter vans.

For more casual events--and sweat shirts, book bags and mugs--a cartoon version will go sailing, play water polo, kick a soccer ball and peer into a bubbling test tube. In his cartoon incarnations, Peter is a real California anteater, often dressed in surfer shorts and shades. While the redesigned anteater is not likely to overtake the earlier “B.C.” image for several years, it will begin appearing on licensed UCI souvenirs and other goods sold by the university bookstore this fall.

“My philosophy is (that) a place should have its own personality, and a mascot helps to do that,” Herrman said. “We’re the only anteater as far as we know. We stand out from the menagerie.”

For UCI’s anteater, the $3,000 spruce-up campaign has been part of a renaissance.

UCI students traditionally scream “Zot!” at athletic competitions, a war cry borrowed from the “B.C.” strip that also serves to confuse opponents. In the past year, “Anteater Races,” using handcars shaped like anteaters, have become a regular half-time spectacle during home basketball games. And a new plaque inside the Bren Center designates the arena as “The Anteater’s Cave.”

A minor controversy arose on campus over a stuffed anteater placed in a display case in the lobby of the Administration Building last November. The seven-foot-long creature was found by former student government officer Jim Breslo in a Santa Ana antique store last year. At that time it was missing both its ears and some patches of hair. Breslo had it restored by a taxidermist and now, he says, it “looks like a million bucks.”

“Some people said it was making light of a dead animal,” Breslo said of initial complaints. “But how many people have a chance to look at a live anteater? This one’s handy, it’s stuffed and it just sits there. I think it’s great.”

Selection of the anteater was a bit of rebellious whimsy on the part of students who rejected more traditional mascots for the newly opened university in November, 1965. Then-Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich Jr. gave students the chance to choose their own symbol, and student leaders stacked the vote by recruiting anteater advocates in dormitories and campaigning shamelessly at polling places.

While the anteater doesn’t have the stature of UCLA’s Bruin, a bear, it stands tall above UC Santa Cruz’s banana slug mascot.

The giant anteater, a threatened species, can also be formidable. Native to Mexico, Central America and South America, it has a 24-inch tongue and grows to 80 pounds on a daily diet of 30,000 ants or termites. Its powerful forearms and razor-sharp claws can rip open concrete-hard termite mounds or fight off its only natural adversary, the jaguar.

“The anteater is not threatening, but if he is attacked, he will fight to the death,” Breslo said. “As UCI students, we’re all anteaters. People might think it’s embarrassing at first. But by the time they leave, they’re proud of it.”

From Herrman’s perspective, the anteater revival has only begun.

Once the new mascot design is launched, Herrman plans to start on a series of promotions, including an “Adopt an Anteater” campaign to raise money for scholarships, bumper stickers (I my anteater) and anteater Valentine’s Day cards to increase membership in the UCI Alumni Assn.

“A mascot can either be an asset or a liability,” said Herrman, whose office is decorated with anteater paraphernalia. “We think there’s no end to the things we can do with our anteater.

“It’s an affectionate character. Everyone loves it. No one has yelled, ‘Stop it with all the anteaters already.’ ”