The okapi is in danger of extinction. The living animal species closest to the giraffe, widespread in the rainforests of the Congo River, has been included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the largest database of information on the conservation status of animal and plant species around the globe.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
The okapi is in danger of extinction. The living animal species closest to the giraffe, found in the rainforests of the Congo River, has been included in the IUCN red list (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in English), the largest database of information on the conservation status of animal and plant species from around the globe.
The animal, shy, silent and solitary, has a dark brown body, with horizontal white stripes on the thighs and terminal parts of the front legs. The shape is similar to that of the giraffe, although the neck is much shorter. The so-called "forest giraffe", just like its taller relatives, has one long, extremely flexible blue tongue, which he uses to pluck leaves and shoots from trees.
National symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has undergone a very important decline in the number of individuals from 1995 to today. The situation is even expected to worsen due to the lack of effective conservation actions. The rate of decline has exceeded 50% over three generations.
"L ' Okapi is considered a national symbol in Congo, so much so that it also appears on banknotes. Unfortunately, the Republic of the Congo has been embroiled in the civil war and ravaged by the poverty of the past two decades. This has led to a severe degradation of the Okapi habitat and an increase in hunting for meat and skin ", explains Dr. Noëlle Kümpel, co-chair of the IUCN group specializing in Giraffe and Okapi and also head of ZSL's range-wide okapi conservation project. Only supporting the country a get out of conflicts and extreme poverty, thus, it will be possible to save the cute and shy Okapi.
Roberta Ragni
Photo Charles Miller
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