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Okapi Conservation
 "Even in the open forest, the pattern of stripes, the dark flanks, and the pale face materialize slowly out of the mottled sun and shadow of the understory. Just as we realize the animal has been watching us, it is gone," says John Hart, on tracking the Okapi — one of Africa's most elusive mammals.
Restricted to rain forests in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Zaire), this secretive, forest-dwelling giraffe with legs striped like a zebra, is the flagship species of the Ituri Forest, home to one of the most diverse populations of mammals in the country.
Hart and his wife Terese, both Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) biologists, have tracked Okapi and other wildlife in the Ituri for nearly 20 years. When they began to see mounting pressures in the region, they launched efforts with fellow conservation groups to protect its central portion. Satellite imagery of the Ituri revealed that 90 percent of the woodland remained uncut, mature forest. However, on-the-ground research uncovered a number of increasing threats to the Ituri's integrity. These included an increase in agriculture due to a sharp rise in immigration, as well as gold prospecting, hunting, logging and charcoal production.
 Even as the government of Zaire crumbled, they continued to accumulate data, involving the local Mbuti people that have lived in the forest for thousands of years, and gaining their support. For five years they tracked animals using radio collars to determine which part of the vast Ituri the Okapi visited. Terese Hart helped catalog some 1,500 plant species found in the forest to determine which ones were preferred by wildlife. Finally in 1992, through their pioneering studies, WCS provided evidence to support the creation of the 5,200 square mile Okapi Wildlife Reserve, established in 1992.
Today, as national political changes make conservation extremely difficult in this young nation, WCS conservation teams continue to provide training and employment to conservation professionals who are the key to the country's future. By standing fast even through the worst of times, WCS has helped ensure that the Okapi Wildlife Reserve remains intact to protect its wildlife, and the larger ecosystem — part of the necklace of protected areas that make up the central African rainforest.
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