Okapi Protection & Hunting

[Kouprey]

Kouprey, of all the books you mentioned, did anybody of famous hunters hunted okapi, ever?

Hi Mark!
Not to my knowledge... Of course, many of those Weatherby-Award Winners and Trophy Hunters hunted in Zaire when it was open, but mainly for bongo and forest elephant. By the way: the story of Ionides' okapi hunt is also in James Mellon's book "African Hunter".
And the hunting for okapi ended basically around WW II, then came the boom of capturing them alive. I also guess the museums then had enough dead zoo okapis to mount, many zoo okapis died of parasites.

There were exceptions, the Danish Congo Expedition of 1945 for example. Their leader, zoologist Boje Benzon, had a okapi licence. He was guided by the PHs Syd Downey and Tony Henley. But on arrival in the Ituri jungle, the hunters heard that a young okapi was trapped alive by pygmies. So they decided to cancel the hunt and take the young one for the Danish zoo instead. Henley was disappointed that he wasn't able to hunt Africa's rarest game (the story is in Henley's book "Round the Campfire".)

And i found another good story from the 1920s. British explorer T. Alexander Barns also wanted to hunt Okapi. As so many excellent white hunters before him, he had no chance. But one day, the pygmies told him about a dead okapi they found - very freshly killed by an leopard! Barns rushed to the spot and was able to secure most of the skin. The stomach and skull were badly damaged by the leopard but at least he had something. The story is from his book "Across the Great Craterland to the Congo". I add the photo from the book.

I found some other succesful okapi-hunters: mining engineer A. Reid (he is featured in Christy's book, with photos of him) shot a beautiful bull okapi. Belgian commander Hedemark also took a okapi. After WW I a british hunter named Dickinson shot two female okapi for an American Museum.
Maybe there were some belgian colonials who bagged okapi and never wrote about it...

 

[Firebird]

I saw them at the san diego zoo a few years ago. I just did a quick internet search and it shows they are still there-numerous videos you can watch of them and several other U.S. zoos apparently have them as well. Not exactly an answer to your question but some fun videos to watch or maybe zoos to visit.

 

[Mike B]

I’m 99% sure the Oklahoma City Zoo has one

 

[Wheels]

I’m 99% sure the Oklahoma City Zoo has one

https://www.okczoo.org/blog/posts/meet-the-okapi

 

[ActionBob]

Houston zoo has some. Or did a year ago anyway.

 

[Newboomer]

Another species I would not hunt even if it were legal.

 

[TravisfromNC]

Disney’s animal kingdom had one on exhibit last month when we visited. White Oak Wildlife
in northern Florida has a herd of them and are deeply involved in the species. They also have other species including Roan and Nile Lechwe , eastern bongo, lesser kudu and even Cape buffalo among others.

To me the okapi represents the mystique and beauty that is deepest darkest Africa. A rarity in the forests of Congo even during the height of African hunting in the early 1900s. I’m sure they are still killed for bush meat if encountered by locals but if the population ever got to a point where trophy hunting was a viable option for the species (highly doubtful, ) I would love to hunt one, I feel it would be just as exciting as hunting bongo or other forest antelopes in their dense jungle habitat.

In his book Between the Congo River and the White Nile, Tony Sanchez recounts an expedition in search of Okapi in the Ituri Forest. As I recall they saw tracks but never encountered one.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this discussion and have learned a lot on okapi.