Meet Asili, an 8-year-old endangered okapi expected to give birth later this year

An 8-year-old okapi at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center on the West Bank is pregnant and will give birth to a calf later this year, an encouraging development for the shy and endangered species known as the "forest giraffe."

The Audubon Nature Institute made the announcement Saturday to coincide with World Okapi Day , which aims to raise awareness for the threatened species native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The survival center, located on 1,200 acres of land owned by the city and the U.S. Coast Guard along the Mississippi River, has five Okapis who roam on 26 acres there.

Asili is now 14 months pregnant, and the father of her calf is 10-year-old Miraq, Audubon said. This will be his first calf. Asili gave birth to a female calf in 2022, though she was b