Okapi's In UK Zoo's

So, was there ever any news on the secret species Chester were planning to mix with their okapi?

Does anybody know which animal the second male okapi at London was circa 2004? They had 2.1 for some time. Was this an adult or the first offspring of Elila's?

I really wish London would finally send their giraffe and zebra off to whipsnade and create a real first-class facility for okapis. For some reason they just look a little pushed aside in the new enclosure. I'm going to be a little biased having encountered one of them sucking the same bar on the paddock gate for 20 minutes straight, a behaviour I associate with giraffe in urban zoo enclosures but have never seen in okapi. In the former area there was the option to separate the outdoor areas into 3 enclosures, they were under trees in summer, and they had double the indoor space.....
 
So, was there ever any news on the secret species Chester were planning to mix with their okapi?

Does anybody know which animal the second male okapi at London was circa 2004? They had 2.1 for some time. Was this an adult or the first offspring of Elila's?

I think the species was meant to be a duiker species (probably F&M and bluetongue postponed it though).

Not sure about ZSL's okapi though...
 
So that extra 2006 male at stuttgart that the EEP coordinator needed chester to house isn't coming now Kiburi has gone there for a while? Or is that still happening? Maybe same as you say, with blue tongue etc....
 
I think the species was meant to be a duiker species (probably F&M and bluetongue postponed it though).

Not sure about ZSL's okapi though...
Its not a Duiker they will follow after the other species if my information is still correct will check when i go today.
 
So that extra 2006 male at stuttgart that the EEP coordinator needed chester to house isn't coming now Kiburi has gone there for a while? Or is that still happening? Maybe same as you say, with blue tongue etc....
Maybe maybe not will try to find out for you.
 
Does anybody know which animal the second male okapi at London was circa 2004? They had 2.1 for some time. Was this an adult or the first offspring of Elila's?

It was another adult- can't remember his details from memory. The current male at London is 'Dickie' (from Chester) so neither of those two males are at ZSL now. I think one(the spare) went to Bristol for a time but its not the male which is there now.. The first offspring of ZSL's Elila (born & handraised at Marwell) was a female(Jemima or jemma).

I'm pretty sure Chester won't need the spare male from Stuttgart as well as the Marwell male. Maybe they will still take him after the Marwell male returns though.
 
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So was 'Rubani', the male London sent to Bristol in maybe 2005, the father of the last two London calves or was he the 'spare' male that made up the 2.1 adults they had around 2004? I'm wondering if ZSL sent the breeding male as he had fathered two offspring with elila already. So the question is where did the spare male go, did he die at London explaining the gap when they just had 0.1 before dicky arrived, or did he leave for some reason as the EEP coordinator did not plan to breed from him and elila?
 
So was 'Rubani', the male London sent to Bristol in maybe 2005, the father of the last two London calves or was he the 'spare' male that made up the 2.1 adults they had around 2004?

There's someone called 'Black Star' on this forum who knows all about Okapi- they might be able to help you out with this info.

There has been quite a lot of shifting around between London/Bristol and Chester with their Okapis but I'm still rather confused by it, except I know there was a 'three-males' movement involving London to Bristol, Bristol(Mbuti) to Chester, Chester(Dicky) to London. Bristol have lost a couple of Okapi in recent years, M,Buti's mother Xantia, and before her also a male I think... that may have been Rubani... Bristol's latest female which came from Paris(?) is a direct descendant(6th generation) of their original pair of Okapi, so is the male Mbuti at Chester- 7th generation unbroken line...
 
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One of the first posts on this thread suggested that Mbuti was the offspring of Xantia and the male Bristol had previous to the london male (Rubani?) replacing him after his death. So Mbuti was never the bristol male but was moved to chester as he was related to the the others at Bristol being their calf. As I understand it, it would seem his father died either while Mbuti was still at Bristol or shortly after he left for chester. Then London sent one of their males to replace him, only which one I am not sure. It sounds very much like Rubani could have been sent to mate with Xantia, only she died in 2006. So either the 'spare' london male was put with Elila and then died, or he wasn't genetically a good match for her and was sent away, but to where?

Hmm, we need okapi experts!
 
Bristol :
Rubani (M) born 1994 Bristol

Chester:
Mbuti (M) born 05 sept. 2004 Bristol (Ndura x Xantia)
Stuma (F) born 22 July 2005 Stuttgart (Vitu x Ibina)

London:
Dicky (M) 06 dec. 1996 Rotterdam (Kiburi x Lisala)
Elila (F) 25 march 1997 Marwell (Dibaya x Bibi)

Marwell:
Kiburi (M) 10 july 1987 Basel
Isiro (M) 17 Jan. 2000 Rotterdam (Kiburi x Lisala)
Shomari (M) 26 Jan. 2006 Marwell (Kiburi x Zukisa)
Mieke (F) 22 aug. 1985 Antwerpen (Aburo x Danae)
Zukisa (F) 26 dec. 1998 Marwell (Dibaya x Bibi)
Dumela (F) 18 Nov. 2002 Antwerpen (Zidan x Yenhte)

Rubani was born at Basel, not Bristol. Otherwise this list is all correct.

You can see the previous male(to Rubani) at Bristol was 'Ndura'- this one fathered Mbuti in 2004 and then promptly died. Rubani was moved in to replace him. Later the female Xantia died also( summer 2006) Mbuti had already moved to Chester beforehand, so Rubani was alone at Bristol for a time until the new female Lodja arrived..

The current Bristol pairing is 'Rubani'(from London)and 'Lodja'(from Paris)
 
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Yes, I see all that, it's just whether Rubani had been the breeding male, or the 'spare' male at London circa 2004. And we still need to establish what happened around 2005/06 to leave Elila on her own before the current male arrived.
 
I don't know the answer to the first part but BlackStar probably would...

2005/6. 'Rubani' left ZSL for Bristol, and replaced at ZSL with 'Dicky' from Chester. I don't know what happened to the other male at ZSL though.
 
I'm pretty sure there was a gap when london only had Elila...Dicky arrived ready for the new enclosure when 'into africa' was opened.
 
Yes, Dicky left sometime during summer-autumn 2006 because I remember he left shortly after Chester's new Okapi exhibit opened...
 
Does anybody know which animal the second male okapi at London was circa 2004? They had 2.1 for some time. Was this an adult or the first offspring of Elila's?
I think you mean Kibali.

Kibali (m) born om 31-05-1970 Rotterdam.
Lived in Marwell and died in December 2003 in London.

Other male okapi's i can't find during the time 2004.

London:

Rubani (m) since 1 july 1996 in London and since 2006 in Bristol.
Elila (f) since 1999 in London.
They have 2 Okapi girls ;
Jemima born 1 November 2001 London (moved on 29-07-2004 to Berlin) and Antonia born 1 July 2003 London (moved in September 2005 to Frankfurt).

And Dicky cam to London in 2006.
 
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Ah I see, so he died, and earlier than I thought, so when I saw three 'adults' around 2004, I was actually seeing the older of the two offspring and not the second male. Thanks!
 
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