(FOX40.COM) — Nearly four months after his birth, the Sacramento Zoo has announced the name of its first-ever baby okapi.
The local zoo announced the name on Saturday morning at the okapi habitat. The choice came after a public vote that raised funds for wildlife conservation.
The name for that baby okapi? Moki, which blends the name of his parents, Molimo and Kivuli.
The other options were Mambasa — named for a town in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a key location for the zoo’s conservation partner, the Okapi Conservation Project — and Mojo, short for “Mo Jr.,” honoring the calf’s father, Molimo.
Moki was born Oct. 9 and is the first okapi ever born at the the Sacramento Zoo.
Okapi, sometimes referred to as “forest giraffes,” are an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are only an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 okapi left in the wild, and only about 100 are currently seen in zoos across the United States.
According to the Sacramento Zoo, okapi are secretive animals that live in dense, remote forest areas. They can communicate with each other using infrasonic sound that falls below the range of human hearing.
The zoo helps support the Okapi Conservation Project, a grassroots organization that works in the field to mitigate human pressures affecting the endangered species
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