News / Animals
Help name Wild Place Project’s new baby okapi
Bristol Zoo’s new baby okapi needs a name.
The female calf was born two weeks ago at the Wild Place Project, to parents Lodja and Rubani.
She is now one of only 15 okapis in the UK and keepers say her birth is a huge success for the species breeding programme. There have only been six births in Europe this year and two of these were at Wild Place Project.
Okapi are the only living relative of the giraffe. The species was first encountered by Europeans in 1900 and described by scientists in 1901.
They are native only to the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa where they are threatened by expansion of human settlement and forest degradation.
Will Walker, animal manager at Wild Place Project said: “The little calf is doing well and looks just like her mum. Her ears have not yet straightened out yet and are still flopped over.
“She has just started the nesting phase, which was a bit late but nothing to worry about. This is the period of time where the calf is left hidden away by herself while her mother goes off to feed.”
He added: “Now it’s time for the youngster to have her own name and we’d love it if the public could help us choose the best name to suit her.”
There are three names to choose from:
– Kimosi, which means Monday in Congolese
– Bili, which means forest
– Yiniti, which means tree.
To vote for your favourite name, visit Wild Place Project’s Facebook page and register your vote.
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