Photos: Disney introduces the newest okapi calf

Disney has released photos of its newest okapi born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge over the summer – Beni.

Born in July to mom Olivia, Beni currently weighs just under 100 pounds and stands a little over three feet tall from hoof to shoulder. Beni is the 12th okapi born at Walt Disney World and the fifth at the lodge.

Beni and his mom have been staying in the backstage habitat area nursing and bonding. The animal care team is monitoring Beni and making sure he hits all the milestones of a growing okapi. In the coming months, he’ll make his debut on the Pembe Savanna at the lodge.

Beni is named in honor of a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the only country where endangered okapis are found. 

For those who have been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and have been on the Kilimanjaro Safaris, you know that the animals, with the black-and-white stripes on their hindquarters and front legs look similar to zebras, but are more closely related to giraffes. They are also nicknamed the “ghosts of the forests.”

There are an estimated 20,000 okapi in the world, and their population continues to decline due to poaching and habitat loss.