An African animal so secretive it was once believed to be the mythical unicorn has been captured on camera for the first time.

Sporting a bump in the centre of its head which resembles a tiny horn, the okapi is a shy and rare animal.

The deer-like creature, which has a long blue tongue of a giraffe, was only discovered at the beginning of the 20th century when a British explorer sent a skin home to London.

The images were captured by camera traps set by a team from the Zoological Society of London and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation in the Virunga National Park.

Thanks to distinctive zebra-type striping on the animal's rear, which are thought to be as individual as fingerprints, scientists have recognised three different animals in the region that are part of a previously unknown population.

However, its unmeasured population is under threat from poaching and bush meat sellers, the ZSL team say.

Okapi meat, reportedly from the reserve, is now regularly on sale in the nearby town of Beni and the ZSL team warns that if hunting continues at this rate, okapi could become extinct in the region within a few years.

Dr Noelle Kumpel from the ZSL said: "To have captured the first ever photographs of such a charismatic creature is amazing, and particularly special for ZSL given that the species was originally described here over a century ago.

"Okapi are very shy and rare animals - which is why conventional surveys only tend to record droppings and other signs of their presence."

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.