Head to head
Giraffe vs Okapi
The okapi looks like someone combined a horse, a zebra, and a deer, and it was unknown to Western science until 1901. It is in fact the giraffe's closest living relative, the only other member of the giraffe family, and up close the family resemblance is clear in the sloping back, the long dark tongue, and the skin-covered horns of the male.
| Giraffe | Okapi | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Giraffidae; and these are its only two living members | Giraffidae |
| Neck | Up to about 2.4 m; total height to about 5.5 m | Normal length; shoulder height about 1.5 m |
| Coat | Tan with brown patches | Dark reddish-brown with white stripes on the rump and legs |
| Habitat | Savanna and open woodland, sub-Saharan Africa | Dense rainforest, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo only |
| Social life | Loose, fluid herds | Solitary except to mate |
| Tongue | Prehensile, blue-black, up to about 45 cm | The same: prehensile, blue-black, up to about 45 cm |
| Horns (ossicones) | Both sexes | Males only; females have none |
| Known to science | Long known | 1901; one of the last large mammals to be described |
| Conservation | Vulnerable | Endangered; range shrinking with conflict and logging |
Giraffe vs Okapi: common questions
Is an okapi a type of zebra?
No, despite the striped legs. The okapi is not related to zebras or horses at all. It belongs to the giraffe family and is the giraffe's nearest living relative. The white stripes on its hindquarters and upper legs are camouflage, breaking up the animal's outline in the broken light of the rainforest floor, and they are a case of the okapi independently evolving a zebra-like pattern for the same reason a zebra has one.
Why does the okapi have a short neck if it is related to the giraffe?
Because the two animals live in different places and eat in different ways. The giraffe's long neck is an adaptation to feeding from tall trees on the open savanna, where reaching higher than any other browser is a real advantage. The okapi lives in dense forest where the food it wants is within easy reach at head height and below, so there was no pressure to lengthen the neck. The common ancestor of both was probably a moderate-necked forest animal like the okapi.
How was such a large animal unknown until 1901?
The okapi lives only in the remote, dense rainforest of what is now the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is solitary, quiet, and superbly camouflaged, and it avoids people. Local communities knew it well, but European explorers heard only rumours of a forest donkey or African unicorn until the British administrator Harry Johnston obtained skins and a skull and the species was formally described in 1901. It remains hard to study.