The Toronto Zoo’s baby Masai giraffe has a name: Imara.
The zoo revealed the winning name on Tuesday, saying out of the more than 23,000 votes cast online, Imara received the most with more than 8,000.
The Toronto Zoo asked for the public’s help earlier this month to name the Masai giraffe calf, which was born on Feb. 22.
“This marks the highest engagement we have ever had with a naming contest, a reflection of the love and support our community has for the animals in our care at their Toronto Zoo,” it said in a statement.
According to the zoo, Imara is Swahili for strong, firm and resilient.
“There’s something deeply hopeful about what our community has chosen to name this calf,” Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong said in a statement.
“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.”
The zoo said Imara has grown to just shy of seven feet in the last five weeks and continues to bond with her mother, Mstari.
The Toronto Zoo also shared that Imara gets the “occasional case of zoomies as she bounds the habitat with her gangly long legs.”
She first became viewable to the public on March 13.
Imara’s arrival comes just months after her father, Kiko, died from cardiac failure linked to acute muscle exertion following an incident on New Year’s Day.
With files from CP24’s Codi Wilson
