Okapis have dark bodies,
with striking horizontal white stripes on the back legs, making them resemble zebras
from a distance. These markings are thought to be "follow me"
markings intended to help young follow their mothers through the dense rain
forest, and also serve as camouflage. The body shape is similar to that of the
giraffe, except that okapis have much shorter necks. Both species have very
long (approx. 30 cm or 12 inch), flexible, blue tongues that they use to strip
leaves and buds from trees. The tongue of an okapi is long enough for the
animal to wash its eyelids and clean its ears: it is one of the few mammals
that can lick its own ears. Male okapis have short, skin-covered horns called
"ossicones". They have large ears which help them detect their
predator, the leopard.
Okapis are 1.9 to 2.5 m
(8.1 ft) long and stand 1.5 to 2.0 m (6.5 ft) high at the shoulder. They have a
30 to 42 cm (12 to 17 in) long tail. Their weight ranges from 200 to 250 kg
(465 to 550 lb).
In addition to tree leaves
and buds, okapis eat grass, ferns, fruit, and fungi. Many of the plant species
fed upon by the okapi are known to be poisonous to humans. Examination of okapi
feces has revealed that the charcoal from trees burnt by lightning is consumed
as well. Field observations indicate that the okapi's mineral and salt
requirements are filled primarily by a sulfurous, slightly salty, reddish clay
found near rivers and streams.
Okapis are largely diurnal
and essentially solitary, coming together only to breed. They forage along
fixed, well-trodden paths through the forest. Okapis occur alone or in
mother-offspring pairs. They have overlapping home ranges of several square kilometers
and typically occur at densities of about 0.6 animals per square kilometer. The
home ranges of males are generally slightly larger that those of females. They
are not social animals and prefer to live in large, secluded areas. This has
led to problems with the okapi population due to the shrinking size of the land
okapis live on. This lack of territory is caused by development and other social
reasons. However, Okapis tolerate each other in the wild and may even feed in
small groups for short periods of time.
Only one infant is born at
a time, between August and October, weighing between 14 to 30 kg (30 and 65
lb). Their life span in captivity ranges from 15 to over 30 years, but data
from wild populations is unavailable. Okapi courtship and mating rituals are
known only from observations done in zoos. Partners begin courtship by circling,
sniffing, and licking each other. Eventually, the male asserts his dominance by
extending his neck, tossing his head, and thrusting one leg forward. This
display is followed by mounting and copulation. After mating, the male and
female part. The gestation period lasts about 440 days, and females retreat
into dense forest vegetation to give birth. They are precocial and may nurse
after 21 minutes and attempt to stand after just 16 minutes. Young spend the
first day or two of life following the mother around and exploring the
environment. After this, they find a suitable hiding spot and make a nest. For
the next two months, they spend 80% of their time in this nest. Hiding behavior
appears to promote rapid growth and provides protection from predators. A
disturbed calf lies motionless in its nest, and a female okapi will rush to
aggressively defend her calf from danger. During the hiding stage, young nurse
relatively infrequently and do not defecate. These strategies help keep them
undetected by predators. Weaning occurs at about 6 months, although young may
continue to suckle for more than a year. Young males begin developing horns at
one year of age, and both males and females reach adult size at about three
years. In captivity, the youngest female to breed was 1 year 7 months old, and
the youngest male was 2 years 2 months old.
Okapis have several methods
of communicating their territory, including scent glands on each foot that
leave behind a tar-like substance which signals their passage, as well as urine
marking. Males are protective of their territory, but allow females to pass
through their domain to forage.
Okapis prefer altitudes
between 500 and 1,000 m, although they may venture above 1,000 m in the eastern
montane rainforests. The range of the okapi is limited by high montane forests
to the east, swamp forests below 500 m to the west, savannas of the Sahel/Sudan
to the north, and open woodlands to the south. Okapis are most common in the Wamba
and Epulu areas.
The okapi is the symbol of cryptozoology.
The okapi was known to the
ancient Egyptians; shortly after its discovery by Europeans, an ancient carved
image of the animal was discovered in Egypt. For years, Europeans in Africa had
heard of an animal that they came to call 'the African unicorn'. In his
travelogue of exploring the Congo, Henry Morton Stanley mentioned a kind of donkey
that the natives called the 'atti', which scholars later identified as the
okapi. Explorers may have seen the fleeting view of the striped backside as the
animal fled through the bushes, leading to speculation that the okapi was some
sort of rainforest zebra. When the British governor of Uganda, Sir Harry
Johnston, discovered some pygmy inhabitants of the Congo being abducted by a
German showman for exhibition in Europe, he rescued them and promised to return
them to their homes. The grateful pygmies fed Johnston's curiosity about the
animal mentioned in Stanley's book. Johnston was puzzled by the okapi tracks
the natives showed him; while he had expected to be on the trail of some sort
of forest-dwelling horse, the tracks were of some cloven-hoofed beast. Though
Johnston did not see an okapi himself, he did manage to obtain pieces of
striped skin and eventually a skull. From this skull, the okapi was correctly
classified as a relative of the giraffe; in 1902, the species was formally
recognized as Okapia johnstoni. The first live specimen in Europe arrived in Antwerp
in 1918. The first okapi to arrive in North America was at the Bronx Zoo, via
Antwerp, in 1937. The first okapi born in captivity was at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois,
which directs the okapi Species Survival Plan for the Association of Zoos and
Aquariums (AZA). Okapi are now reasonably common in zoos around North America
and Europe. Immediately following their discovery, zoos around the world
attempted to obtain okapis from the wild. These initial attempts were
accompanied by a high mortality rate due to the rigors of traveling thousands
of miles by boat and by train. In more recent years, shipment by airplane has
proven more successful.
Although okapis are not
classified as endangered, they are threatened by habitat destruction and poaching.
Conservation work in the Congo includes the continuing study of okapi behaviour
and life styles, which led to the creation in 1992 of the Okapi Wildlife
Reserve. The Congo Civil War threatened both the wildlife and the conservation
workers in the Reserve.
On June 8, 2006, scientists
reported that evidence of surviving okapis in Congo's Virunga National Park had
been discovered. This had been the first official sighting since 1959, after
nearly half a century. [1]
On September 27, 2006, an
okapi named Sauda (meaning "dark beauty" in Swahili), was born at the
Brookfield Zoo in Illinois. [2]
The genus name Okapia
derives from the Lese Karo name o'api, while the species' epithet
(johnstoni) is in recognition of the explorer Sir Harry Johnston, who
organized the expedition that first acquired an okapi specimen for science from
the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name
"Okapi" is a compulation of two Lese words. Oka a verb
meaning to cut and Kpi which is a noun referring to the design made on
Efe arrows by wrapping the arrow with bark so as to leave stripes when scorched
by fire. The stripes on the legs of the Okapi resemble these stripes on the
arrow shafts. Lese legend says the Okapi decorates itself with these stripes.