Okapi - in Captivity

In Captivity

• At Disney's Animal Kingdom

• An okapi at Bristol Zoo cleans itself

• An okapi reaches for some leaves

• Okapi at Chester Zoo

• Okapis at Chester Zoo

• Okapi at Zoo Miami

As of 2011, there are 154 okapi specimens in zoos on four continents, with the majority of them in North American and European zoos, and two specimens in South Africa and seven specimens in Japan. Immediately after their discovery, zoos around the world attempted to get okapis from the wild. These initial attempts were accompanied by a high mortality rate due to the rigors and stress of traveling thousands of miles by boat and by train. In more recent years, shipment by airplane has proven more successful.

The first live specimen in Europe arrived in Antwerp in 1918. The first okapi to arrive in North America was at the Bronx Zoo, via Antwerp, in 1937. The first okapi born in captivity outside Congo was at the Antwerp Zoo, Belgium in 1953; the first born in North America was at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois in 1959.

List of births in captivity

The Brookfield Zoo directs the Okapi Species Survival Plan for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for the okapi is led by the Antwerp Zoo.