Okapi

Appearance

In sharp contrast to the white horizontal stripes on the legs and white ankles, the Okapi's coat is a chocolate to reddish brown. The face, throat, and chest are greyish white. Male okapis have short, hair-covered horn-like structures called ossicones, less than 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, that are similar in form and function to the ossicones of a giraffe.

Its average body length is about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) and its weight ranges from 200 to 350 kg (440 to 770 lb).

Published measurements include mass about 250.

Range and habitat

The Okapi is endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it occurs north and east of the Congo River. It ranges from the Maiko National Park northward to the Ituri rainforest, then through the river basins of the Rubi, Lake Tele, and Ebola to the west and the Ubangi River further north. Smaller populations exist west and south of the Congo River.

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve and Maiko National Park support significant populations of the Okapi, though a steady decline in numbers has occurred due to several threats. Other areas of occurrence are the Rubi Tele Hunting Reserve, the Abumombanzi Reserve, the Sankuru Nature Reserve, the Lomami National Park.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

Okapis are primarily diurnal, but may be active for a few hours in darkness. Males migrate continuously, while females are sedentary.

The male is protective of his territory, but allows females to pass through the domain to forage. Males visit female home ranges at breeding time.

In crisis

Even so, non-invasive genetic identification has suggested that a population has occurred south-west of the Congo River as well. The Okapi is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Major threats include habitat loss due to logging and human settlement.

Illegal mining and extensive hunting for bushmeat and skin have also led to a decline in populations. The Okapi Conservation Project was established in 1987 to protect Okapi populations.

Okapi is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Okapi, Wikidata item Q82037. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.