Discovering the Okapi

Author: Simon Pooley / Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press / Pages: 392

In Discovering the Okapi: Western Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Search for a Rainforest Enigma, Dr. Simon Pooley, a scientist with a particular focus on human-wildlife conflict and coexistence, examines the plight of the endangered okapi—closest living relative of the giraffe—which dwells in the shadows of the Ituri rainforests of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. He begins with “discovery” of the species in 1900 by British naturalist Sir Harry Johnston and traces how colonial ambitions and attitudes shaped early efforts to gain an understanding of—and a degree of control over—this mysterious animal and its story.

Sadly, the tale follows a familiar script: News of an exotic creature brings explorer/hunters—intrepid adventurers on heroic treks to collect “specimens” to ship back to museums or private collections in the name of science. Pooley quotes from their journals, which tend toward florid, self-aggrandizing accounts more elaborately embroidered than the Bayeux Tapestry. Efforts to capture live animals for zoos result in more removals from the habitat—and many more animal deaths. Trophy hunters follow, killing without pretense of scientific purpose. Timber and mining companies arrive to chop down and uproot forest habitat, creating inroads for opportunistic bushmeat hunters. (Today, at least a million tons of bushmeat flow out of the Congo Basin every year.) Like other species under such onslaughts, the okapi thus began its slide toward extinction: once rarely seen, now simply rare.

Pooley incorporates pertinent historical, cultural, and biological elements to reveal how the Okapi became a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges. Along the way, he paints a vivid picture of the natural history, physiology, and behavior of the okapi, as well as the prevailing mores and mindsets that have inflicted so much damage on the species and its homeland and made conservation efforts so challenging. Pooley also stresses how the Indigenous people’s deep knowledge of the land and its inhabitants played an indispensable—but largely uncredited—role in Western scientific efforts to learn the okapi’s secrets. He concludes this richly detailed account with an appeal to knit Western and Indigenous approaches to conservation into shared solutions that will ensure the future of this remarkable, reclusive wild species.

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