{"id":414442,"date":"2026-08-23T06:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T06:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414442\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T06:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T06:32:20","slug":"san-antonio-zoo-mourns-death-of-male-okapi-who-aided-conservation-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414442\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Zoo mourns death of male okapi who aided conservation efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite treatment, the zoo says Epulu\u2019s condition worsened<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Zoo is mourning the loss of Epulu, a male okapi who helped support conservation efforts for the endangered species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Zoo officials said Epulu\u2019s care team noticed signs of colic and a loss of appetite last week. Despite treatment, his condition worsened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Epulu arrived at the San Antonio Zoo in 2014. During his time there, he played an important role in raising awareness and supporting conservation for okapi, a rare forest-dwelling species native to Central Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">In 2023, Epulu and his mate welcomed a calf named Gates. Gates is now at the Los Angeles Zoo as part of a coordinated breeding program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The San Antonio Zoo said it is working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums on next steps for the program. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Read also:<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 kfUEDb copyright\">Copyright 2026 by KSAT &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite treatment, the zoo says Epulu\u2019s condition worsened SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Zoo is mourning the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[631,82,84,83,8702],"class_list":["post-414442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-death","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}