Endangered Okapi pregnant at Audubon Nature Institute

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — One of the Okapi at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center is pregnant.

According to the Audubon Nature Institute, eight-year-old Aslili is due to give birth to her second calf sometime at the end of the year after a 14-month pregnancy. The father of Aslili’s calf is 10-year-old Miraq. This will be his first calf.

Okapi are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Okapi are shy, solitary animals, native to the forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are the only living relatives of giraffes, sometimes nicknamed “forest giraffes.” They are considered one of the world’s oldest mammals. Due to their solitary nature and ability to avoid detection, scientists did not describe them until 1901. Even a hundred years later, little is known about them.

Aslili’s first pregnancy resulted in the birth of a female calf in 2022. Unfortunately, due to an untreatable congenital defect, that calf only survived a few months. The animal care team is monitoring the pregnancy and will be watching via a camera system during the birth process to ensure the safety and health of both mother and calf.

There are five Okapi at the Species Survival Center with 26 acres for them to roam and specialized facilities for their care.

In the wild, Okapi are threatened due to illegal hunting, mining and other human encroachment in their habitat, as well as habitat loss due to deforestation. There is no accurate accounting of Okapi in the wild, but their numbers are believed to have dropped by 50% in the past 20 years.

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