In the thick Ituri Rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo roams a seldom seen okapi. It looks like a zebra, albeit with percentages that got a little wonky someplace down the line. Half its body is covered in rippling white stripes that can merge its dim environments under the best lighting, while the rest of it is covered in dark, purple fur, oily enough that water slides straight off it.
The little we do learn about the okapi originates from a field research study performed in the 1980s utilizing radio collars. This scarcity of understanding develops a huge selection of preservation difficulties for researchers and companies working to safeguard this animal. Here are 7 other things presently understood about the okapi.
1. Okapi are Considered a “Living Fossil”
Okapi are members of the giraffidae household, a when varied and big group of animals that wandered Africa countless years back. Researchers think that okapi and giraffes– as the making it through members of giraffids– shared a typical forefather, both types boasting a prolonged family tree going beyond several dates.
It’s one of the reasons that the okapi is described as a “living fossil,” a label seen even in a New York Times post released in 1982. “Every candidate after lost, famous or otherwise mystical animals on the earth,” composed John Noble Wilford in the old paper, “discovers motivation in the story of the okapi.”
Find out more: Take a Tour of These Incredible Living Fossils
2. Okapi Can Eat Bat Excrement
Taking in between 45 to 60 pounds of food each day, okapi are ravenous eaters. Their diet plan is special, as they’re the only rainforest-dwelling types to take in exclusively understory foliage: fruits, often fungis, leaves, and branches. Beyond the over 100 plant types on the menu that they pick from, okapi likewise turn to munching on charcoal and mineral-rich clay, and even bat droppings, for extra nutrients.
3. Okapi are the Closest Living Relative to the Giraffe
Another label for the okapi is the “forest giraffe,” a nod to their environment in the thick Ituri Rainforest. If you just had access to a picture of an okapi, you may be amazed to discover they’re in fact the only living loved one of the giraffe. The other members of the when far more prevalent giraffidae household all passed away out.
Regardless of its similarity to a zebra thanks to its striped hindquarters– a similarity that initially deceived researchers into categorizing them as family members of the zebra– the okapi shares evolutionary characteristics with its much taller and lankier cousin.
Like giraffes, okapi wield a dark tongue (long enough to clean their own ears) to remove rain forest plants of their fresh leaves. They should likewise splay their disproportionately long, socked legs in order to consume water. Naturally, however, a high and slim neck isn’t especially useful for the forest-dwelling okapi, whose skies are crapped by a thick overhanging canopy.