Woodland Park Zoo’s new baby giraffe has a name and a new pair of shoes!



SEATTLE -- To say “Hasani” is to say “handsome” in Swahili, and that’s the name chosen for the baby giraffe born earlier this month at Woodland Park Zoo.

The name was picked by staff who named him after the baby’s paternal grandfather. The calf was born May 2 with abnormalities in his rear legs but is otherwise healthy.



“We noticed right away that each rear foot was not in normal alignment, a condition known as hyperextended fetlocks,” said Dr. Darin Collins, director of animal health at Woodland Park Zoo.

Zoo veterinarians have constructed a pair of therapeutic shoes to help the calf’s leg condition, which they say will do the “heavy lifting in the next phase of treatment of the baby’s rear leg abnormalities.”

Hasani and his mother Olivia will not be viewable to visitors while staff monitor their condition and allow the two to bond.