Houston Zoo's Baby Okapi Meets Mayor Namesake

Sylvester, Houston Zoo’s one-month-old male calf had a close encounter with a VIP visitor. He was named after Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner - and the city’s leader came to the zoo to meet his namesake. The calf has a lot of personality and has already doubled his birth weight. Sylvester was born on April 20 to mom Sukari and dad Kwame and spent a few weeks behind the scenes bonding with his mum. Okapi mothers use infrasonic communication with their calves, a sound that is below the range of human hearing. Although often thought to be related to zebras, because of their stripes, okapis are the only living distant relative to the giraffe. The most prominent similarity is their large black tongue used for plucking buds, leaves, and branches from trees. Okapi are an endangered species found in the rainforests of Democratic Republic of Congo.