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A zoo in the US has welcomed its 17th endangered Grevy’s Zebra foal, with the colt born last Sunday morning, on November 29.

He is the first foal at the zoo for 22-year-old Sassandra – known as Sassy – who arrived from the California’s Living Desert Museum in 2012. The colt is also the first offspring for dad Ziggy, who is six.

The colt weighed in at just under 70 pounds, and animal curator Laura Bottaro said the zoo could not be happier with the arrival. “This birth is also a significant addition to the species worldwide.”

The Oklahoma City Zoo was one of the founding zoos of The Grevy’s Zebra Trust, established in Kenya in 2007 as an independent wildlife conservation Trust to address the urgent need to conserve the Grevy’s zebra in the community rangelands of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Toward the end of the 1970s, the global population of Grevy’s zebra was estimated to be 15,000. In 2008, an updated survey estimated that the number had dropped to just 2800 — an 80 percent decline in population over four decades.

The Zoo also participates in the Zebra Species Survival Plan (SSP) through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The SSP allows the Zoo to work with AZA-accredited organizations to help ensure the survivability of the Grevy’s zebra for future generations. Oklahoma also has two Grant’s, or common, zebras in its animal collection.

The Grevy’s zebra is the largest in size of five species of zebra and the most endangered in the wild. Their median life expectancy is about 30 years. The Zoo

The new foal and his mother can be viewed in the Grevy’s zebra habitat on Wild Dog Row, weather permitting of 40 degrees or above in dry conditions.