14 DAY TRIAL // Keepers at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium have recently announced that, on December 27, a baby okapi was born at this facility.
The zoo has been running a breeding program for this species since the year 1919, and has been quite successful.
Thus, Zoo Borns tells us that this calf, born to mother Hakima, is the 50th of its kind to have ever been successfully delivered at Antwerp Zoo.
Keepers say that the baby okapi is a female. It has been named Oni, and it is its mom's second offspring. Hakima is doing a very good job looking after it, and the calf is growing stronger every day.
Presently, six other herbivores live at Belgium's Antwerp Zoo. One of them, a female named Mchawi, is Oni's sister.
Conservationists estimate that, for the time being, just 10,000 okapi are left to inhabit Africa's Congo basin. They hope that, by breeding this species in captivity, they will manage to help it escape extinction.