Toronto Zoo’s Masai giraffe has a name
Article content
The Toronto Zoo’s newest addition has a name.
Article content
The zoo announced Tuesday that its one-month-old Masai giraffe calf has been named Imara.
Article content
Her name was selected by voters through a contest.
The zoo said Imara, which is Swahili for strong, firm, and resilient, was a favourite, earning over 8,000 votes out of the more than 23,000 votes cast.
The zoo said her name was among five that were picked with the help of the Kenyan Honorary Consulate in Toronto.
“There’s something deeply hopeful about what our community has chosen to name this calf,” said Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong in a news release. “She stands for a symbol of strength, optimism and resilience not only for her endangered species but in a world eager to be reminded that hope still thrives.”
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Article content
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Calf has the ‘occasional case of the zoomies’
The calf was born on Feb. 22 and made her public debut earlier this month.
Back then, the newborn was a towering 6-foot-4. She has since grown to just shy of seven feet, the zoo said.
The zoo thanked the public for respecting the newborn by keeping noise levels to a minimum in the giraffe house.
“This has been so helpful as she experiences crowds for the first time,” it said in the press release.
“Imara continues to bond with Mom, Mstari, nursing and getting the occasional case of the zoomies as she bounds around the habitat with her gangly long legs,” it added.
The zoo said Masai giraffes were elevated to endangered by the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) in 2018 with fewer than 35,000 of them left in the wild.
Share this article in your social network
