Okapis are secretive, forest-dwelling relatives of the giraffe with highly specific welfare needs that make their successful captive management particularly challenging.
Okapi welfare in captivity requires exceptional keeper skill and sensitivity. As extremely shy animals adapted to dense forest cover, they are highly stressed by noise, crowding and routine disruption. Their dietary needs are complex and meeting them in captivity requires significant horticultural infrastructure. Visitor exposure must be carefully managed — high visitor density causes measurable stress responses. The conservation importance of zoo okapi populations is genuine, but this value must be balanced against the welfare costs to individual animals of captive conditions that inherently compromise their natural behaviour.