Oklahoma zoo names giraffe Njeri

An Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden has named a giraffe Njeri.

Oklahoma's Newsbreak on Wednesday reported that the zoo settled on the name after a naming contest held on October 3.

Njeri's mother Julu gave birth to her on September 15.

The contest had a selection of four names: Najuma, Acacia, Mosi and Njeri.

Njeri is said to be the second-born calf at the Oklahoma zoo. The first is named Kioni, who was born on June 3.

Giraffes at the zoo have unique names such as Julu, Njeri, Mashamba, Ellie, Kioni, and Demetri.

It is commonplace to ask the public to participate in naming ceremonies.

On June 14, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala launched an annual elephant naming festival at the Amboseli National Park. Dubbed Tembo Naming Festival, the event was held on August 12 to coincide with World Elephant Day.

The festival was aimed at bringing attention to the conservation of elephants and the Kenyan tourism offering.

During the Tembo Naming Festival, individuals had the chance to adopt an elephant after contributing funds towards their conservation.

The foster parent (adopter) would then be given priority in choosing the first name of the elephant. The second name would be a Maasai name based on the animal’s profile, history, role in the family, and physical attributes like state of tusks.

Currently, Kenya boasts of more than 34,000 elephants, the number has been gradually increasing at an annual rate of 2.8 per cent over the last three decades. Remarkably, there has been a 96 per cent decline in poaching with 386 elephants being lost in 2013 compared to 11 elephants poached in 2020.