Okapi, Okapi leśne

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ENDANGERED At very high risk of extinction in the wild.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the okapi is endangered. While it’s not clear how many remain in the wild, scientists estimate that populations may have been slashed in half over the past two decades. Though the leopard is the okapi’s chief predator in the wild, human hunters pose a greater threat to the okapi’s existence. In 2012, a militia group killed 14 okapis at a conservation center located at the headquarters of the Okapi Conservation Project. Today, poachers continue to kill okapis for their meat and skin, and civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo makes enforcement of wildlife protection laws increasingly difficult. Human-induced deforestation also leads to fragmentation and destruction of crucial okapi habitats.

National Geograohic.