The okapi is the closest living relative of the giraffe.
The okapi and giraffe are the only living members of the family Giraffidae. Their shared ancestry is reflected in features such as ossicones, specialized skin-covered horn-like structures, and similar details of the skull and tongue. The okapi is much shorter and has a dark reddish-brown body with striking zebra-like stripes on its legs.
Unlike the open-country giraffe, the okapi lives mainly in the dense forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its body shape and dark colouring provide camouflage in that habitat. The species was unknown to Western science until the late nineteenth century, although local communities had long known it.
The okapi is sometimes called the forest giraffe, but it is not a zebra-giraffe hybrid. Its stripes are an example of convergent-looking patterning, while its evolutionary relationship with the giraffe is established by anatomy and genetic evidence.