ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1603 



* -m^m 





IN AN OKAPI TRAIL 



possible. The Belgian Colonial administration 



generously seconded the efforts of the Museum's 

 party by granting the necessary privileges, and 

 it was our great ambition to procure a few rare 

 mammals for tile New York Zoological Park; 

 and even when the collections increased to such 

 an extent as to make it impossible for us to care 

 for live animals we still hoped to the last mo- 

 ment to bring home the first live Okapi. 



Let me briefly outline the history of the dis- 

 covery of the Okapi. In 1890 Stanley gave the 

 first positive clue to the existence of the Okapi 

 in the Ituri forests, the northeastern part of the 

 great West African rain forests. Stanley re- 

 ferred to it as a "donkey" called "atti," which 

 feeds on leaves. In traveling through the great- 

 er part of the range of the Okapi in 1888, as 

 commander of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedi- 

 tion, lie lost through famine, fever and attack by 

 hostile natives four hundred of his six hundred 

 and forty Zanzibari porters. His thrilling ac- 

 count established a dreadful fame for the haunts 

 of the Okapi, but apparently no attention was 

 paid to the few words appended to his "In 

 Darkest Africa." Stuhlmann, traveling in the 

 Semliki Forest in 1891. actually saw a part of 

 the striped hide and mistook it for that of a 

 Zebra, as Junker had in 1883 in passing 

 through the Mangbetu country. But in 1901. 

 eleven years later. Sir Harry Johnston, the 

 gifted explorer and colonial administrator, then 

 High Commissioner of Uganda, through per- 

 sistent efforts, succeeded in securing a few 

 strips of the striped hide of Stanley's "don- 

 ke\ '-like animal, and. recognizing their im- 

 portance, at once sent them to the British 

 Museum. London scientists, misled by the 

 stripes, announced the discovery of a new spe- 



cies of forest zebra. This was a tempting prob- 

 lem for so enthusiastic a naturalist as Sir 

 Harry Johnston, always wide awake to the op- 

 portunity for discovery. He organized an ex- 

 pedition, and. in the company of Pygmies, soon 

 camped near the trails of the animal he sought. 

 His time being limited, his followers ill and 

 disgruntled, and seeing that the quarry he fol- 

 lowed in vain had cloven hoofs and might prove 

 to be only a forest eland, he abandoned the im- 

 mediate realization of his hope. Nevertheless 

 his diplomacy triumphed. He met Mr. Erikson, 

 a Scandinavian officer in the service of the 

 Congo Free State stationed at Beni, who was 

 well acquainted with the Okapi through its 

 meat and skin, which the natives often brought 

 to his post, and who gladly promised to send a 

 skin and skeleton to the High Commissioner's 

 residence at Entebbe, Uganda. Indeed a few 

 months later Sir Harry could study the coveted 

 remains at leisure. It was a pleasant surprise 

 for him that the "donkey"-like animal called 

 "O-api" by the natives proved to be an epoch 

 making discovery. Far from being a horse or 

 an antelope, as expected, it claimed as its near- 

 est relative the giraffe. It was one of the sur- 

 vivors of the giraffine group, such as the Paleo- 

 tragus and Helladotherium, flourishing in 

 southern Asia and Europe during Miocene ages, 

 several million years ago. The Okapi had found 

 a safe retreat in the heart of Africa, in the 

 gloom of the Congo forests. Some of these an- 

 cestors differed vitally from each other in size 

 and form, and the Okapi too has practically no 

 external resemblance to the giraffe. To the 

 layman this much heralded affinity seems puz- 

 zling because in size, proportions and color 

 the Okapi looks more like a mule. The two 



about a foot wide and eight 

 \ with pieces of bark beneath 

 rests the release. 



