North American Okapi Population

Nile Hippo Expert said:
This Facebook post about Memphis Zoo's new Okapi Tobi also confirms that 4-year-old male "Riley" (Kiloro x Kuvua) has been moved from Memphis to a different facility on a breeding recommendation. Memphis does plan to keep holding a bachelor group of Okapi.
Our other okapi moved to other facilities due to breeding recommendations. Memphis Zoo is focused on keeping a bachelor group of okapi.
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Kifaru Bwana said:
Hint: scan the SE region for new arrival.
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To avoid any confusion or misinformation, I would like to point out that no where in the post does it specifically confirm that the animal in question here (1.0 "Riley") was transferred to another facility... Memphis's other former okapi, "Miraq" was moved to the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on a breeding recommendation, as was previously announced in this thread. Infer from that information what you will...
 
Hi! I'm new here, but I've visited this thread a lot in my quest to meet okapi. I recently went to the zoos in Columbia and Cincinnati. I mainly wanted to see the new baby (and he is so cute, he came right up to the fence and I just sat there in wonder for about an hour) so I didn't look up information about the okapi in the Columbia Zoo. I was surprised that there were two there! So I just came here to figure out what their names are, only to see that there are actually four okapi in that zoo and I have no idea which two I saw. :( I like to keep track of the names of the okapi I've met. I don't know, this is probably a dumb question, but I don't suppose there's any way to figure it out?
 
If female okapis are at such a premium, could we extract eggs and sperm and do IVF?

Or is that too complicated?
 
Zorro said:
Do you know the current European and Asian population at the moment for a total world captive numbers?
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Europe has 40.43 (27 holders)
Asian zoos participating in the SSP 5.4 (3 holder)
Non-SSP individuals in Al Bustan & Vantara are harder to track, but if no new individuals have been born recently, it should number 6.6 (2 holders)
So in total, that's 108.93 for a total of 201 Okapis with 68 holders.

tigris115 said:
If female okapis are at such a premium, could we extract eggs and sperm and do IVF?

Or is that too complicated?
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That is a possibility they might have to consider, Europe does have slightly more female than males. Recently, a giraffe's egg was successfully fertilized and preserved. Maybe when more experience and information have been gathered from giraffes, it could be implemented with okapis.
 
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tigris115 said:
If female okapis are at such a premium, could we extract eggs and sperm and do IVF?

Or is that too complicated?
Click to expand...

Gametes have been extracted from males and females opportunistically (post-mortem) as outlined in this study. The matured oocytes collected were injected with sperm via ICSI:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773093X24000199

Although no embryos were obtained, this study represents the first step towards the application of ART in okapi, providing a foundation for future reproductive interventions aimed at preserving self-sustaining captive populations.
 
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