Who discovered Okapis?

Okapia erikssoni was named in 1903 by Lord Rothschild who found the skin of a female okapi to be different. (note: both observations were false). Okapi were unknown to western world (occupy dense African rainforest habitats) until discovered by Sir Harry Johnston in 1901. Species name is in Johnson's honor. read more

It was only discovered by scientists less than a decade before the 1909 launch of the Congo Expedition. Even today, the life history and daily habits of the animal are little understood. But in the first decade of the century, the okapi occupied an almost unicorn-like place in the popular imagination. read more

Subsequently, Lankester declared that the okapi represented an unknown genus of the Giraffidae, which he placed in its own genus, Okapia, and assigned the name Okapia johnstoni to the species. In 1902, Swiss zoologist Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major suggested the inclusion of O. johnstoni in the extinct giraffid subfamily Palaeotraginae. read more

Philip Lutley Sclater was the first European to describe it, in 1901, but it was known to native Africans long before that and Sclater never personally saw one alive. read more