The Only Place to See a Wild Okapi, and Why That Doesn’t Currently Mean a Visit

Okapi Wildlife Reserve occupies roughly one-fifth of the Ituri Forest in northeastern DRC, near the borders with Uganda and South Sudan — 13,700 square kilometres of primeval rainforest that has remained largely unchanged for millions of years, and the only place on earth where the okapi, the so-called “ghost of the forest,” can be seen in its natural habitat. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, the reserve protects not only the okapi — DRC’s national animal, a forest-dwelling relative of the giraffe so elusive it went undocumented by Western science until 1901 — but also forest elephants, an estimated 2,000 leopards, thirteen primate species, and nearly 380 bird species, within one of the most biodiverse landscapes on the continent.

We’re going to be direct with you, as we were with Virunga: Okapi Wildlife Reserve is not a place we can responsibly help you plan a visit to right now. As of the most recent information available, the reserve is occupied by elements of the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed Islamist group that killed more than 1,700 civilians across the wider northeast Congo region in 2025 alone. This is not a security caveat layered onto an otherwise bookable destination — this is an active conflict and humanitarian situation in the exact area the reserve covers. What follows is an honest account of what this reserve represents, the conservation story unfolding within it even now, and what we think you should do with that information.

What Makes Okapi Wildlife Reserve Extraordinary

The okapi is one of the most genuinely strange and wonderful animals on earth — striped like a zebra on its legs, built like a small giraffe with a dark chestnut coat, and so shy and well-camouflaged within the dense Ituri Forest that it remained essentially unknown outside Central Africa until the turn of the twentieth century. The reserve that bears its name protects the core of its remaining range, alongside an extraordinary supporting cast: forest elephants moving through the same understory, leopards in numbers rarely matched elsewhere in Africa, and primate and bird communities that place the Ituri Forest among the most biodiverse rainforests on the continent.

The forest itself matters beyond its wildlife. As one of the largest remaining tracts of intact tropical rainforest in the Congo Basin, it stores enormous quantities of carbon and plays a measurable role in regulating regional and global climate — meaning that what happens to this forest does not stay within its borders. The reserve’s core zone, covering more than 2,800 square kilometres, is intended as a fully protected refuge with no human activity permitted at all — a description that, in the context of what is currently happening on the ground, carries a particular weight.

The Current Situation: Why This Is Not a Travel Destination Right Now

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve has a long and difficult security history. In 2012, an armed group attacked the reserve’s headquarters at Epulu, killing seven people and fourteen captive okapi being cared for as part of a research and breeding programme — an attack that destroyed most of the site’s infrastructure and from which the reserve’s management capacity has never fully recovered. Since then, the broader Ituri region has experienced sustained pressure from armed militias, illegal gold and coltan mining operations, and — most seriously — the presence of the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan-origin Islamist armed group that has expanded its operations into northeastern DRC and was responsible for over 1,700 civilian deaths across the region in 2025.

This is, by any measure, an active conflict zone with a documented terrorist presence and a civilian death toll in the thousands within a single recent year. There is no version of “visit with extra caution” or “travel with a security-aware operator” that applies here in the way it might for Kahuzi-Biega or, with significant caveats, Garamba. We are not aware of any tour operator currently offering, or that should be offering, visitor access to this reserve, and we would not facilitate it if asked.

A Story of Resilience, Even Now

And yet — almost unbelievably, given everything above — there is a genuinely hopeful thread running through this reserve’s recent history, and it deserves to be told honestly alongside the rest. In February 2025, rangers at Okapi Wildlife Reserve, working with the Okapi Conservation Project, succeeded in bringing an okapi named Tundana back to the Epulu Conservation and Education Center for the first time in over thirteen years — the first okapi to return to the site since the 2012 attack wiped out its entire captive population. Building on that success, a further capture campaign in early 2026 brought two more okapi, named Pori and Ekpangi, into the centre’s care, following extensive preparation that included traditional community ceremonies and camera trap studies to confirm where stable wild okapi populations still persist.

This work has continued — has succeeded — while the surrounding region has experienced some of its worst violence in years. It is a testament to the rangers, researchers, and local communities who have chosen to keep this conservation mission alive under circumstances that would be unthinkable in almost any other context. It does not change the answer to “should I plan a visit,” but it matters, and it’s part of why this reserve, and the people working within it, deserve to be known about even when they cannot be visited.

What We Recommend Instead

Unlike mountain gorillas or eastern lowland gorillas, the okapi genuinely has no wild alternative location — Okapi Wildlife Reserve and the surrounding Ituri Forest are, definitionally, the only place on earth wild okapi exist. We won’t pretend there’s an equivalent destination elsewhere in this guide that offers “the okapi experience instead.” If seeing a wild okapi was specifically what drew you to this page, the honest answer is that this is not currently possible anywhere, and we don’t know when that will change.

What we can say is that several zoos around the world maintain okapi as part of international conservation breeding consortia working alongside the Okapi Conservation Project — and while we know that’s a very different thing from a wild encounter in the Ituri Forest, it remains the only way to see this animal at all while the situation in DRC’s northeast remains as it is. For travellers whose broader interest is in the Congo Basin’s forest ecosystems and their wildlife more generally, Nyungwe Forest National Park in Rwanda and Kibale Forest National Park in Uganda — both covered elsewhere in this guide — offer genuinely comparable Congo Basin rainforest experiences, with thirteen primate species in Kibale’s case, even though neither holds okapi.

Supporting Okapi Conservation From Afar

If this reserve and the animal it protects have stayed with you — and for many people, learning about the okapi for the first time has exactly that effect — the Okapi Conservation Project continues its work in the region and has historically accepted direct support from the public, funding the rangers, researchers, and community programmes that have kept this mission alive through the 2012 attack, through the pressures of mass displacement into the Ituri region, and through the current ADF presence. We’d encourage anyone interested to research their current programmes independently, as the most meaningful way to engage with this reserve right now may simply be to ensure the people protecting it — and the okapi itself — are not forgotten while the situation on the ground makes a visit impossible.

Let’s Talk

We know this page doesn’t end the way the others in this guide do, and we think that’s the right call. If your interest in this region extends to the Ituri Forest’s broader ecosystem, to Congo Basin rainforest more generally, or simply to understanding what’s happening in this part of the DRC and how it connects to the wildlife destinations we can confidently help you visit, get in touch with our Travel Experts — we’re glad to have that conversation, point you toward current and reliable sources of information, and help you build a trip to the places in this guide that are genuinely ready and safe to explore.