Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Parking Lot Shoeprints
Dewey Square Pylon & Bent 38
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Alresford Spy Toilet
This Public Bathroom in a Sleepy English Village Was an Epicenter for Cold War Espionage
2 days ago
Manhattan Well
The Manhattan Well: How Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton United to Solve a Murder Mystery
3 days ago
Beneath downtown Minneapolis, Schieks Cave has surprisingly warm groundwater, evidence of a subterranean heat island.
Schieks Cave Below Minneapolis Contains a Lake of Warm Sewage
4 days ago
Athenaeus described various kinds of Greek drinking vessels, like the deep, rounded skyphos and wide, flat kylix.
The Ancient Greek Guide to Succeeding at Dinner Parties
5 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Manhattan Okapi Taxidermy Diorama

Okapi Taxidermy Diorama

This impressive scene portrays the elusive forest giraffe of Central Africa.

New York, New York

Added By
Mictlān Tēcutli
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
The okapi diorama.   Thomas Quine/cc by 2.0
The okapi diorama.   Thomas Quine/cc by 2.0
Photo of an okapi in a zoo in France.   Daniel Jolivet/cc by 2.0
A 1917 photograph of one of the okapi specimens (the well-hidden one) at the museum.   Internet Archive Book Images/The Commons
The Akeley Hall of African Mammals, with the okapi diorama in the far left corner.   Ryan Somma/cc by-sa 2.0
Close up of the Okapis   Lorianne DiSabato
  wherearewedude / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

When you enter the Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, take a moment, if you will, to contemplate the fifth diorama on the righthand side of the gallery. In the dappled shade of a lush forested landscape stands an elegant pair of striped okapi, an unusual animal that looks like a cross between a zebra and giraffe.

In this diorama, one of the animals stretches its long neck to browse on the leaves of a bush, while the second is portrayed about to quench its thirst in a puddle of rainwater. Look carefully and you will spot a third okapi, which can be seen in the background where it stands behind the bole of a tree. This scene of the remote rainforests of Central Africa was meticulously assembled over 100 years ago to become what is widely considered one of the most impressive taxidermy dioramas in the world. 

Today, the okapi, also commonly known as the forest giraffe, is a species that can be seen and admired in many zoos across North America, Europe, and East Asia. However, in the early 20th century, the sight of this unlikely ungulate, either living or dead, was completely impossible for anyone outside the Baka tribe of the Ituri forest. Due to the animals' cryptic and elusive nature, which continually frustrated even the most intrepid explorers and naturalists, the enigmatic forest antelope remained hidden from the world and imbued with an aura akin to a latter-day unicorn.

By 1900, the only proof of the creatures' existence were anecdotal references in the journals of explorers like Henry Morton Stanley and a few scant okapi skin artifacts obtained through bartering with Baka tribes. This prompted the president of the American Museum of Natural History at the time, Henry Osborn, to state that he wished to obtain an okapi specimen "before the progress of civilization should make this impossible." In 1909, an expedition to the Central African rainforest was organized to collect specimens (living and dead) of this species, led by the German-born zoologist Herbert Lang and the museum's ornithologist James Chapin.  

After many months of travel, the pair eventually arrived in the jungles of what Lang would call "the most dismal spots on the face of the globe." As they set out to find the animal, it became immediately clear that if the expedition was to have any success, it would depend entirely on the cooperation and help of the Baka ("pygmy") hunter-gatherer tribes, who were the only peoples who knew the okapi and its habits well. Nevertheless, it took quite some time before the naturalists were able to gain the trust of Baka hunters to help them in their quest. 

The task was made even more difficult by the humid conditions of the rainforest, which meant that the bodies of any animals caught in traps would decompose rapidly, attracting fungi and ants, which meant scientists needed to act quickly to preserve the skin. In spite of these difficulties, the expedition was eventually able to obtain the skins of three adult specimens as well as a live calf, which sadly died in captivity.

The okapi specimens were brought back to New York with much acclaim and attention from the international press, and the museum immediately began work on building a diorama to display them. The extraordinary attention to botanical detail in this particular diorama is remarkable. Every tree, plant, and fungus is a reproduction created with painstaking fidelity, portraying species that would naturally be found in the okapi's dense and shadowy jungle habitat. This effect was largely achieved by the meticulous field data on the flora of the Ituri forest that was collected in the notebooks, specimen jars, flower presses, and photographs taken by Lang and Chapin during their expedition.  

But despite appearances, not everything here is scientifically sound, as a practical joke was apparently played by the foreground artist George Frederick Mason on his fellow museum painter, James Perry Wilson. Knowing Wilson's love of riddles and puzzles, Mason apparently painted a lilliputian intruder in the diorama—a North American striped chipmunk (which needless to say does not occur naturally in the Ituri forest nor any other African habitat)—and challenged him to find it. Eagle-eyed visitors may be able to spot this prank in the background painting if they pay close attention to the diorama's forest floor.  

Related Tags

Animals Taxidermy Dioramas Natural History Museums Natural History

Know Before You Go

The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan is open from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. every day. Entrance is free, but it is strongly recommended to contribute a small donation to the museum to help with its upkeep and outstanding scientific work. The okapi diorama can be found in the museum's Akeley Hall of African Mammals.

If you are interested in this species and would like to see a living okapi in the flesh, don't forget to check out the Okapi that are kept nearby in the Bronx Zoo as part of the "Congo gorilla forest" exhibit.

Community Contributors

Added By

Monsieur Mictlan

Edited By

Edward Denny, Meg, wherearewedude

  • Edward Denny
  • Meg
  • wherearewedude

Published

July 2, 2019

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Okapi Taxidermy Diorama
200 Central Park West
New York, New York
United States
40.781324, -73.973988
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Indian Rhinoceros Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Asiatic Leopard Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

African Elephants Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 406
Stories 90

Nearby Places

Indian Rhinoceros Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Asiatic Leopard Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

African Elephants Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 406
Stories 90

Related Places

  • One of the leopards with its peacock prey.

    New York, New York

    Asiatic Leopard Diorama

    One of the most dazzling dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History is also one of the oldest.

  • Jackals, marabou stork, and raven awaiting their turn.

    New York, New York

    Scavenger Taxidermy Diorama

    This morbid scene depicts the Darwinian drama of death on the African savannah.

  • Diorama depicting the sambar deer and Asiatic wild dog.

    New York, New York

    Sambar and Wild Dog Diorama

    This taxidermy scene brings the struggle for survival in the Indian jungle to a quiet corner of a Manhattan museum.

  • The Komodo dragon diorama.

    New York, New York

    Komodo Dragon Diorama

    Here be dragons.

  • Hall of North American Mammals

    New York, New York

    Hall of North American Mammals

    Outstanding taxidermy dioramas showcase the grandeur of the continent's wildlife with spooky realism.

  • HORNS APLENTY

    Brighton, England

    The Booth Museum of Natural History

    The natural history museum displaying the British bird collections and dioramas of Edward Booth, free of charge.

  • Closeup of the elephant herd.

    New York, New York

    African Elephants Diorama

    This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

  • A taxidermy hippo.

    Tervuren, Belgium

    Royal Museum for Central Africa Natural History Collections

    A fascinating and enormous collection of natural history exhibits stained by a dark colonial legacy.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.