First Baby Okapi

The Vincennes Zoo, Paris, let it be known last week that Ebola, a female infant okapi--a rare, sawed-off semigi-raffe from the Belgian Congo rain forest --had lived three weeks so far without untoward incident. This is big zoo news; other okapis have been born in captivity, but Ebola is the first to survive so long. Assistant Director Paul Vullier explains that female okapis suffer in captivity from "deviation of maternal instinct." If they do not starve their infants by refusing to let them suckle, they trample them to death. And what pushes them into their fiercest outbursts of antimaternal deviation is the sight of strange humans, especially photographers.

Long before Ebola was due, Vullier kept all visitors away from the quarters of mother Irumu and father Dolo. He fed them both a special vitamin-rich diet of oat porridge with milk and salt, raw onions, carrots and watercress. Every morning a zoo attendant went to the Bois de Vincennes to pick fresh acacia leaves for the expectant okapis. Twice every day a keeper massaged Irumu's teats so that she would not fly into a rage when her infant first tried to suckle.

After the birth of 50-lb. Ebola, father Dolo was removed as an unnecessary hazard, and the news of the birth was kept from the public to avoid a rush of photographers. Now the worst is over. Mother Irumu suckles her baby three times a day with undeviated maternalism, but refuses if humans are near. Ebola has grown like a weed, more than doubling her weight in three weeks. Assistant Director Vullier, watching fondly, says: "We think we have saved little Ebola, but of course with animals one never knows."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.