World Okapi Day

HAPPY WORLD OKAPI DAY

While concrete and undisputed fossil records are hard to come by when it comes to the history of the okapi, it is generally accepted that they are in the running for the title of the oldest large mammals on Earth. Native to Central Africa, the okapi, sometimes referred to as a "zebra giraffe," has roamed the Earth for at least 18 million years. Okapis are rainforest animals that are endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Okapis live in canopy forests in higher altitudes ranging from 1,600 to 4,900 feet above sea level. They mostly inhabit primary or older secondary forests, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and don’t occur in gallery forests, savannas, or disturbed habitats surrounding larger human settlements.

Okapis are known to be mostly diurnal and are solitary mammals who will only join others in order to breed.

The okapi diet is that of an herbivore where they will consume tree leaves, buds, grasses, fungi, fruit and ferns.

• Appearance: Horse like body with long legs and neck, flexible ears, chocolate to reddish-brown coat, and white horizontal stripes on the legs and ankles; males have small rounded hornlike structures on the skull
• Predators: Leopards, humans
• Conservation Status: Endangered

Although the first sightings of okapi are unknown, art from the 5th century BCE depicts an animal that resembles an okapi. The first okapi specimens in the Western world were brought by the British naturalist Sir Harry Johnston, who learned of the animal from Pygmy inhabitants of Africa. He never saw a live okapi but was able to bring some of its striped skin and its skull back from his travels. The species was given its first official scientific name in 1901, when it immediately sparked discussion of the animal’s origins among scientists.

No one knows how many okapis exist in the world.

Here's a quiz (post your score on the comments):

Quiz: World Okapi Day - Google Forms