Card #026 · Mammals
Okapi
Okapia johnstoni
Super Rare EN · Endangered
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Artiodactyla · Family Giraffidae
- Range
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Size
- ~2.5 m (8.2 ft)
- Weight
- 200–350 kg (440–770 lb)
- Lifespan
- 20–30 yrs
- Diet
- Leaves, buds, fungi
Most Notable
Europeans chased rumours of an African unicorn for years. When material finally reached London in 1901 it was filed as a horse, then recognised as the only surviving relative of the giraffe.
The stripes are not for open country. In the half light under a closed canopy they break up the outline of the hindquarters, and are thought to give a calf something to follow. Otherwise the okapi is solitary and leaves little trace, which is why it stayed a rumour for so long.
Its tongue runs to about 46 cm, dark and prehensile enough to strip leaves from more than a hundred plant species, and long enough to wash its own eyes and ears.
Males carry short skin covered horns called ossicones, the same structures a giraffe has. Females have none.
It lives nowhere else on earth but the forests of northeastern DR Congo, and logging, settlement, illegal mining and poaching have all pressed into that range.
Range: Rainforest of northeastern DR Congo.