Chester Zoo above and Bristol Zoo below.
When the British governor of Uganda , Sir Harry Johnson , discovered some pygmy inhabitants of the Congo being abducted by a German showman(Hagenbeck) for exhibition in Europe, he rescued them and promised to return them to their homes. Johnston was puzzled by the okapi tracks the natives showed him; while he had expected to be on the trail of some sort of forest-dwelling horse, the tracks were of some cloven-hoofed beast.
Though Johnston did not see an okapi himself, he did manage to obtain pieces of striped skin and eventually a skull. From this skull, the okapi was correctly classified as a relative of the giraffe. In 1902, the species was formally recognized as Okapia johnstoni.
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 was at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, which directs the Okapi Species Survival Plan for the (AZA).
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The sire of the first okapi born in captivity was on loan from RBBB. John Ringling North wanted an okapi but found that the USDA regs. wouldn't permit it to tour, only stay at an approved zoo. J.R.N. was a friend of Brookfield director Robert Bean and that's where Arabi resided. Richard J. Reynold wrote a complete story of circus okapis, probably in Bandwagon several years ago.
Wade,
Okapis are probably one of my favorite cloven animals. Their stature and coat are gorgeous along with them being related to giraffes. Fascinating creatures really. Didn't have a chance to go to the fair this weekend. Got a notice on our door that the fire marshall was inspecting apartments. Kind of a messy person so we spent the weekend cleaning. Will go next weekend and get you some pictures.
-Amy Scott
Amy,
You and Margaret have something in common. Her favorite cloven hoofed animal with a gorgeous coat is a pink Angora goat.
Wade
Jim,
I guess USDA made a proper decision. If not Arabi would possibly never have been born.
I wonder how many Zoo Directors were real friends, and how many liked the comped tickets to take their family and friends to the Greatest Show on Earth?
Wade
The one at Brookfield (sired by the RBBB male) was the first okapi born in USA but the first ever born in captivity (to survive)saw the light at the Vincennes Zoo (Paris) on June 6, 1957.
I think that okapis tended to have worms and this was a problem which zoos keeping them encountered in the early days. Sincerely Paul
I do not believe that the Vincennes Zoo had the first captive birth of an okapi. The Stanleyville Zoo had the first one born in captivity in 1941. Have you ever heard of those hairy little monsters which supposedly exist in Africa, called the agogwe? I suppose they could be an unknown species of primate. I have been watching documentaries about cryptozoology on a show called Destination Truth. Sincerely Paul
It's ironic that when Sir Harry Johnston was Governor of Uganda there were still okapis living in Uganda. He did'nt have to travel to the Congo to find evidence. Sincerely Paul
According to this book: The Okapi Mysterious Animal Of Congo-Zaire, by Susan Lyndaker Lindsey, Mary Neel Green, and Cynthia L. Bennett, the first European birth of an okapi was at Antwerp Zoo in 1954. One named Ebola was born in Paris on June 6, 1957. I was also reading about pygmy elephants recently. The book I was looking at claims that one died in the Bronx Zoo in 1915, and that the specimen is in the American Museum Of Natural History. (I thought that the existence of pygmy elephants had been disproven.) The book also claims that a German Ambassador filmed pygmy elephants in the wild in 1990. I was also reading about an unusual chimpanzee, which was captured where no chimpanzee had any business being, which was acquired by Chester Zoo I think around 1960. It only lived about two months. A supposed gorilla-like chimpanzee acquired by Basel Zoo in 1967 turned out to be a young female gorilla with a reddish back. Sincerely Paul
Wade: I previously found an article on the internet, which I can no longer locate, about the man who caight the okapi for the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1954. There was a separate article which referred to McCormick Steele as "John Ringling North's white hunter". The okapi in question was supposed to have been three years old at the time of his capture, and was named "Arabi", according to the newspaper, but the International Okapi Studbook spells it "Aribi", studbook number 71. The nwspaper article said that Aribi was purchased by the Ringling Bros. Circus from the Government of Belgium, but the USDA would not allow a commercial, for profit, eneterprise, to exhibit an okapi, so Aribi was loaned to the Chicago Brookfield Zoo. In fact he was the first okapi at Brookfield Zoo, but after they acquired a female from the Belgian Government Aribi fathered the first okapi born in the United States and Western Hemisphere. No zoo outside of the US in the Western Hemisphere has ever exhibited an okapi that I know of. The first okapi birth in the U.S. was on 17, September 1969 (the same year as the moon landing) and he was named "Mr. G", studbook number 140. Mr. G went to the Ringling Bros. Circus, and he is the only okapi ever in a circus menagerie, to this day. Aribi died at Busch Gardens in 1978. According to the title of the newspaper article McCormick Steele wanted to catch a yeti. That reminds me: there was a documentary on last night about the Russian version of the yeti. Take care. Sincerely Paul
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