“Okapis were unknown to Western science until 1901.”
The okapi is a shy forest giraffe from the Congo rainforest. It eats leaves and fruit in dense understory and is the only living relative of the giraffe besides extinct fossil forms.
By An Nguyen · Updated
Browse photographs of okapi across habitat, behavior, anatomy, and life stages.
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Core article
A closer look at habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and conservation.
The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) looks assembled from several animals — the long neck and big ears of a giraffe, bold zebra-like stripes on the hindquarters, and a body about the size of a horse. In fact it is the giraffe's closest living relative, the only other member of the family Giraffidae alive today. So secretive that Congolese people knew it long before Western science confirmed the species in 1901, the okapi is a creature of the deep Congo rainforest that remains hard to study — and, the evidence suggests, in serious decline.
An adult okapi stands 4 to 5 feet at the shoulder and weighs 450 to 800 pounds, with a dark reddish-brown coat and white horizontal stripes on the legs and rump. Only males grow ossicones — the short, skin-covered horn-like knobs also seen on giraffes — and large, flexible ears swivel to catch sound in the dark forest. Its most famous feature is a long, prehensile, bluish-gray tongue, often 14 inches or more, used to strip leaves from branches. Glands on the feet secrete an oily substance that marks plants along its trails and may help individuals recognize paths and territory, and despite its bulk the okapi can hit nearly 37 mph over a short distance to flee predators like the leopard. Genetics suggests giraffes and okapis split 11 to 16 million years ago; where the giraffe took the open-country, long-necked path, the okapi evolved a shorter neck and striped camouflage for moving quietly through closed forest.
Wild okapis occur only in the DRC, in lowland and montane rainforest of the Ituri, Aruwimi, and Nepoko basins of the eastern Congo, needing closed-canopy forest with dense understory and mineral-rich soils. Surveys focus on protected zones like Maiko National Park, the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, and parts of Virunga. They travel well-worn single-file trails through the forest — paths that also make them vulnerable to snares set along known routes — and while they tolerate some small-scale human activity at forest edges, they disappear when logging, mining, or settlement breaks up large habitat blocks.
Okapis are selective herbivores whose diet is almost entirely leaves from woody plants — over 100 species recorded — plus buds, fruit, seeds, and ferns, with grass barely featuring. They feed in the understory and at shrub level, reaching vegetation other browsers can't with that long tongue, and they also eat charcoal and clay from forest clearings (and in some areas bat guano), likely for minerals. An okapi may eat 45 to 60 pounds of foliage a day, and because food is thinly spread through the forest it spends much of the day moving and browsing alone.
Okapis are mostly solitary. Adult home ranges overlap — especially between males and females — but direct contact is rare outside the breeding season, with females holding ranges of about 2.5 to 4 square miles and males 4 to 7 or more. They communicate through scent, marking with urine and the foot-gland oil, plus quiet chuffs and bleats, and are active mainly by day, resting at night. A calf stays hidden in vegetation for its first weeks while the mother feeds nearby.
A female bears a single calf after a long gestation of about 14 to 15 months. The calf can stand within 30 minutes but stays concealed in undergrowth, nursing and waiting through its first two months while the mother leaves to feed. Weaning comes around 6 months, though the calf may stay with her a year or more, and females typically produce one calf every two to three years. In the wild okapis may live 20 to 30 years.
The okapi is Endangered. Reliable counts are lacking, but dung surveys in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve showed a 43% decline between 1995 and 2007, with evidence of further losses since. Poaching for bushmeat and snaring along forest trails are major threats, and civil conflict in eastern DRC disrupts park management and fuels illegal hunting, while logging, mining, and settlement fragment the forest blocks okapis need. Fully protected under Congolese law and on CITES Appendix I, the species depends on securing protected areas, removing snares, and supporting ranger patrols in the Ituri region.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Artiodactyla
Family
Giraffidae
Genus
Okapia
Species
O. johnstoni
Okapis were unknown to Western science until 1901.
An okapi tongue can reach 14 inches and is dark bluish gray.
Only male okapis grow short fur-covered horn-like ossicones.
Okapis leave sticky oil on plants when marking territory with their legs.
Calves stay hidden in vegetation for weeks after birth.
Okapis follow the same narrow paths through the forest for generations.
Select a question to reveal the answer.
An okapi is a large forest mammal from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It looks like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra but belongs to the giraffe family.
Yes. The okapi is the giraffe's closest living relative. Both belong to the family Giraffidae.
Wild okapis live only in lowland and montane rainforests in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainly in the Ituri Forest region.
Okapis browse leaves, buds, fruits, and ferns from more than 100 plant species. They sometimes eat fungi and clay for minerals.
Bold white stripes on the hind legs and rump may help calves follow adults through dim forest light and break up the animal's outline among tree shadows.
Yes. The IUCN lists the okapi as Endangered. Poaching, snares, and habitat loss from logging and conflict have caused sharp population declines.
No. Okapis are wild, endangered animals that need vast forest habitat. They are protected under Congolese law and are not suitable for private ownership.
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