STAFF at one of Hampshire's top-tourist attractions have been wishing happy birthday to a very special 'old deer'.

The old dear in question is Marwell Zoo's 33-year-old male African Okapi, Kibali, who is thought to the oldest recorded member of his species in the world.

Previously an Okapi at a zoo in the USA had survived to 31, but Kibali, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Saturday, has now scooped the record and is still going strong.

Okapis, that rarely live past 20 years in the wild, are the sole known relatives of giraffes and were only discovered in the early 1900s.

Their natural home is in the dense Ituri rainforest in the central African country of the Congo, though their existence in the wild is coming under increasing threat from loss of habitat, partly caused by the social and political turmoil in that part of the world.

Kibali is a great favourite at the zoo near Winchester, especially among his keepers, and will be treated to a special birthday cake made of bread and fruit being baked by the Stainers Bakery of Bishop's Waltham.