by Ann Truong

The upper half makes it look like a cousin to the giraffe, while the rear legs look like it belongs to a zebra. A cross-breed? No, but it was thought to be a ‘unicorn.’ The male have two horns on its head, and if looked at from the side, they can look like a single horn. What’s even more interesting is the fact that the okapi have managed to survive in a region where poaching and war have threatened a species that could end up on the extinct list in this area. While the okapi is rarely found in the wild, it can be found in zoos around the world.

Zoologists captured the first photos of the Okapi in its natural habitat in the Ituri Forest in the Congo. Not only is this region home to the okapi, it is home to some of the last remaining mountain gorillas- all the more reason for us to be conscious of and in support of conservation efforts.

You can see more up-close photos of the okapi here. And you can takepart by learning more about the Zoological Society of London, as well as other conservation efforts around the world.

Originally from Dallas, TX, Ann Truong is a screenwriter in her final year at the Loyola Marymount University | School of Film and Television. After spending a lot of money and receiving her bachelors in electrical engineering and mathematics, she decided it was time to head west and pursue her childhood dream of becoming a writer for no money.

(Photo: San Diego Zoo)

What does a zoo do, we wonder, when an elephant gets too old to stay in the zoo? It’s a tricky issue deciding where to send the animal so everyone’s happy. Now, what if the elephant has a history of depression and the elephant-equivalent of PTSD? What then?

That last question is not a hypothetical thought experiment - it’s what the Dallas zoo is wondering right now. Jenny is an elephant that’s had a tough life, The New York Times tells us. She was orphaned, stolen from Africa, shipped to America where she was beaten in the circus, an finally taken in by the Dallas zoo 22 years ago. Now, her latest companion has passed away, and the zoo had made arrangements to send Jenny to another zoo in Mexico, where she would be a part of a five-acre exhibit with another female elephant.

But this decision has rankled some people.

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By Kerry Trueman

No, grizzly cub twins Scout and Montana haven’t committed any crimes. It’s their mother, a furry freegan, who’s the delinquent. Idaho authorities had to capture the whole family after mama bear repeatedly trespassed in search of trash.

Mama’s been shipped off to Washington State University’s veterinary school to be studied. But the school couldn’t accommodate her babies, too, because they’re going to be ten feet long and a thousand pounds when they grow up.

Returning the cubs to the wild was not an option because of all the bad habits they’ve learned from their mother. Idaho officials placed the cubs temporarily in the Montana Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Helena, but warned that if no permanent home could be found, the grizzlies might have to be euthanized.

Luckily for Scout and Montana, though, the San Diego Zoo happened to have “a spare grotto in Bear Canyon,” as the Los Angeles Times reports, thanks to the recent death of an Alaskan brown bear named Spanky. So Scout and Montana have taken up residence in a swanky 4,500-square-foot grotto complete with moat, waterfalls, grass and trees. Not bad for a pair of bears who were on the road to becoming juvenile delinquents. Now they’re well on their way to becoming cub scouts.