One of the best parts of visiting the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park is seeing all of the amazing animals in large, natural enclosures, and the okapi exhibit in the Park’s Heart of Africa is no exception. Okapis, which are so elusive that they were once thought to be a myth like the unicorn, are extremely difficult to find in the wild. They live in dense forested areas, and with their deep chocolate color and striped legs they blend into the background.

At the Wild Animal Park, an elevated boardwalk borders about half of our okapi exhibit and allows guests an excellent view of a species that resides in a limited number of zoos around the world. But where should visitors start looking for our okapis? A lot of their on-exhibit time is spent in a portion of their enclosure that is near the Egyptian vulture exhibit. This is great news for Park visitors, because it is one of the closest areas of their enclosure to the boardwalk. Overall, about 65 percent of the okapis’ time is spent in this section of the enclosure. Ayana, our pregnant female, likes this area so much that she spends an average of 87 percent of her time there. (See previous post, How the Okapi Spends Its Day).

I was a little surprised to find that they are spending so much time close to the public. Though our okapis are well adjusted and are very used to the public, the species in general is extremely shy and can startle relatively easily. One of the reasons they may prefer this area of the enclosure is that it has the highest density of trees. These trees provide shade for our okapis and help provide a cool oasis from hot summer temperatures. Even though all of our okapis were born in zoos, the greater density of trees in this area would also be more similar to the species’ rain forest habitat.

Our okapis spend the least amount of their time in the center area of their enclosure. This area is wide open, without any trees, and is generally exposed to the sun. On average, only about one percent of our okapis’ time is spend in this area. This information supports the idea that our okapis prefer to spend their time in areas of their enclosure that have trees and shade.

I’ve got more data to collect, but am hoping that information about okapi use of the enclosure can provide useful information for managing these wonderful animals in zoos.

Check back later in the summer to see how my research on okapi behavior and use of space is going! But, in the meantime, if you have a chance to visit the Wild Animal Park, you’re most likely to spot the okapis chilling in the shade.

Sarah Brzezinski is the Neeper Summer Intern in the Behavioral Biology Division at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.

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