Conservationists have called for urgent action to stop armed militia and illegal mining in protected central African forests from driving the elusive okapi to extinction.
A 10-year plan to save the “forest giraffe” drawn up by a coalition of conservation groups and NGOs calls for government and international commitments to support key protected areas from armed militia involved in ivory poaching and illegal gold-mining activities.
Chocolate-brown with distinctive black and white markings on its hindquarters similar to a zebra, the okapi’s (Okapia johnstoni) closest living relative is actually the giraffe. Around the size of a small horse, they live in the remote central and north-eastern lowland tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and were one of the last large mammals to be discovered in Africa.
The threats to the species have increased as its habitat has decreased. In 2008, numbers of the “near-threatened” species were estimated to be between 10,000 and 35,000. The most recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “red list” assessment of the species in November 2013 upgraded its status to endangered, after a loss of more than 50% of the population over 24 years. As well as armed conflict, major threats to the okapi are forest loss through logging and human settlement, and hunting for bushmeat.— © Guardian NewspapersLimited, 2016
Chocolate-brown with distinctive black and white markings on its hindquarters similar to a zebra, the okapi’s (Okapia johnstoni) closest living relative is actually the giraffe. Around the size of a small horse, they live in the remote central and north-eastern lowland tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and were one of the last large mammals to be discovered in Africa.
