Discovering the Okapi: Western Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Search for a Rainforest Enigma

The captivating history of the okapi and its symbolic role in science, culture, and conservation.

In Discovering the Okapi, Simon Pooley offers a fascinating portrait of the okapi—an elusive short-necked giraffid with zebra stripes, surviving in the rainforests of central Africa's Congo basin—and unpacks the complicated layers of Western science and Indigenous knowledge that shaped the world's understanding of this unique creature.

Pooley tells the story of the okapi's "discovery" in 1900 by...