As a child growing up in the Ndumo Game Reserve on the South Africa-Mozambique border, Simon Pooley read an animal encyclopaedia given to his family by a visiting scientist. He became fascinated by the okapi, a striking animal from the Congo Basin rainforest. Decades later as a conservation scientist and environmental historian recovering from dengue fever contracted during research, he returned to that early interest. Visiting London Zoo, he began investigating the okapi’s history, discovering in the Zoological Society of London’s library the records of the first okapi remains and the first live okapi to reach the UK. Finding surprisingly few books on the animal, he began researching its story. We spoke to him about his new book, Discovering the Okapi.
