Chicago Zoological Society

A Rainforest Wonder

Where are okapi found?
Okapi live in the wild in only one country in the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo (or the DRC, formerly known as Zaire) in Africa. They’re found in tropical forests in the northeastern part of the DRC. They live at pretty high altitudes, between 500 and 1,000 meters (between about 1,500 and 3,300 feet), where the days are warm and humid and the nights are cool.

American and European scientists didn’t know about okapi until about 1900, but okapi were well-known by Africans long before that. To people of the DRC, the okapi is a very special animal. It is now the symbol of conservation for the country. People who live near okapi respect them because of their elegant appearance and elusive ways. To these people, okapi represent the purity of the forest because okapi inhabit the deepest parts of it which have been undisturbed by humans.

What do okapi look like?
Okapi have a short, velvety coat that is dark reddish-brown to almost black. They have creamy white stripes on their hind end and front upper legs, and white “ankle stockings” on their lower legs. The stripes help okapi blend into the shadows of the forest and make them very difficult to see, even when they are only a few feet away.

Okapi have longer front legs than rear legs, and they have relatively long necks. These features are similar to those of okapis’ nearest relative, the giraffe (in fact, they are often called “forest giraffes”). Okapi also have a long, prehensile tongue like the giraffe, and okapi males have the same hair-covered horns on their head.

What about okapi reproduction?
Females give birth to a single calf that weighs up to 30 kilograms. Infants double their weight by the end of their first month from drinking their mother’s rich milk. Newborn okapi can stand within thirty minutes after they are born. They spend most of their first two months of life alone, hidden away in vegetation. Mother okapi only visit infants to feed them—they stay away most of the time so they won’t attract predators to the infant. When the calf is big enough, mother and infant are together most of the time.

What is the status of okapi in the wild?
Like many of the world’s tropical forests, forests in the DRC are threatened because they possess many valuable resources. As the human population grows, some people want okapi habitat so they can log the forest, mine it for gold, or convert it to farming and grazing lands. Okapi are also the targets of poachers, who hunt them illegally for their valuable skins.

Okapi are especially vulnerable to all of these threats because their habitat—the forests of the northeastern DRC—is not a very big area. Okapi are legally protected in the DRC, but their dense forest habitat make laws difficult to enforce.

Zoo breeding
Zoos throughout North America and Europe care for and display okapi. In North America, the Okapi SSP manages the breeding of captive okapi, while a similar plan is used for the animals in Europe. Another group of breeding animals are kept within the okapi’s natural range in the DRC. Worldwide, there are about 60 okapis in zoos—about 40 of them are in the U.S.

Okapi at Brookfield Zoo
Okapi are in their new home at Brookfield Zoo, Habitat Africa! The Forest. Brookfield Zoo has a long and successful history with okapi. The first okapi—and the first in any American zoo—came in 1955. And in 1959, Brookfield Zoo was the first in the U.S. to have a baby okapi born.