Okapi on the move at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Yorkshire Wildlife Park welcomed a new arrival yesterday when Kora, a two-and-a-half-year-old okapi arrived from Chester Zoo. Kora’s arrival marked a well-choreographed series of moves of okapi between UK zoos to ensure the continuation of the valuable breeding programme in the UK which has been challenged by the ongoing restriction of moving hoofstock from Europe due to the outbreak of Bluetongue virus.

YWP’s female okapi Ruby in a reciprocal move to Chester Zoo, where she will meet their breeding male Stomp and hopefully return to YWP in calf next year. Her son Mzimu, now two and a half years old, has moved to ZSL London Zoo as a future breeding male to play his part in the vital programme.

Kora was extremely settled when she arrived at the Park and was soon tucking into her browse that had been cut specially for her from the Park’s plantation. Just one day later, the two and a half year old youngster ventured outside into the reserve. Her first steps into the sunshine were captured eagerly by the Animal Team at the park.

'We’ve been watching Kora closely since she arrived and she has been remarkably calm and adapted to life here really well.. It’s been so nice to see her outside in the sunshine. The visitors who have spotted her already have been so excited!' said Kyrie Birkett, Section Head for Hoofstock. ‘ We will gradually build up the amount of time that she spends outside so that she can get used to her new environment. There’s lots of new things for Kora to see - she had her first glimpse of a zebra this morning in the adjacent reserve – and that was a surprise to her as she had never seen one before!’

Okapi are classified as endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species and Mzimu's birth, November 30th 2021, was the first okapi calf successfully bred at the park as part of the European breeding programme.

The 175 -acre park, at Auckley, near Doncaster, is one of the few places in the UK where these traditionally shy and reclusive animals can be seen.

Kyrie added: 'We are delighted to see Kora adapt so well as okapis are so endangered. The continuation of the successful breeding programme in the UK depends on close cooperation between zoos and we look forward to Ruby returning from Chester in the future, hopefully in calf.'

The okapi, with its distinctive markings and often known as the forest giraffe, is under severe threat from poachers, logging, illegal mining and unrest in their native areas of the north eastern rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their numbers have plummeted from 250,000 in 1901 to around 10,000 today.

They can grow to almost five-foot-tall at the shoulder with an average body length of eight feet, weigh up to 350 kilograms and can live to 30 years. During the vulnerable first few months of a calf’s life, the mother Okapi will hide her youngster in a nest or undergrowth in the wild.

The park offers visitors the unique opportunity to get up close to over 70 species of beautiful and endangered animals, including the country’s largest group of Polar Bears, Amur leopard, lions and black rhino.