Elijah, a baby okapi born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in October, is now within sight of theme park visitors.
The young animal has joined his mother on DAK’s Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. Elijah is the 14th birth of this endangered species at Animal Kingdom and the first since 2012, the company says.
His mom is Zelda, and his dad is Elombe.
Elijah has had a bit of a growth spurt. He was 46 pounds at birth but now weighs in at 165 pounds.
The new Animal Kingdom resident was named after longtime WDW cast member Elijah “Slack” Johnson. He started working at Magic Kingdom in 1974 and moved to Animal Kingdom’s horticulture department when that park opened in 1998.
The striped okapis are native only to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are rarely seen in the wild, Disney says. (It’s a natural camouflage thing.) The birth of baby okapi Elijah was made possible through cooperation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.
Although it’s been more than a decade since an okapi was born at Animal Kingdom theme park, an okapi eventually named Beni was born at the nearby Animal Kingdom Lodge in 2022. Beni and Elijah have the same father, making them half-brothers. Park guests may also spy okapis during the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction.
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