(Source: eggplantation)
worldlyanimals: Funny Okapi (photo by robbobert)
okapi calf
Klaus Gierden Photographer ~ Stretch :)
It’s true.
Okapi Calf born 27 June at the Denver Zoo, Colorado. (Okapi are the closest living relatives of the giraffe.) Photo provided by Denver Zoo publicity.
<3
thats an okapi, which is not even in the tapir family >:[
why’d you tag this with camel and tapir? seiously
OKAPI
Okapia johnstoni
©Steve J O’BrienWhen I came across the Okapi in an animal book in 3rd grade, I remember being blown away. How could there be an animal this amazing that I’d never even heard of? Unthinkable!
The okapi is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings similar to zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe.
The body shape is similar to that of the giraffe, except that okapis have much shorter necks. Both species have very long (approximately 35 centimetres), flexible, blue tongues that they use to strip leaves and buds from trees. Forget geckos - the okapi tongue is long enough to wash its eyelids and clean its ears (inside and out).
Okapis are herbivores, eating tree leaves and buds, grass, ferns, fruit, and fungi. Many of the plant species fed upon by the okapi are poisonous to humans.They also consume charcoal from trees burnt by lightning and fufill their salt requirement by consuming a reddish clay found near rivers and streams.
The name “okapi” is a combination of two Lese words, oka a verb meaning to cut and kpi which is a noun referring to the design made on Efé arrows — by wrapping the arrow with bark it leaves stripes when scorched by fire. The stripes on the legs of the okapi resemble these stripes on the arrow shafts.
Other posts:
Leopard - Okapi predator
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OKAPI by Steve J O’Brien on Flickr. :)
An excellent study into the real animals that make up our notion of the “unicorn.” Yes, there are real unicorns - but not as we know them. Lavers’ book is well-written and absorbing, explaining convincingly how the narwhal, the okapi and even the orangutang - let alone some deities and Zoroastrianism - make up the animal we revere over all else.
(via gogoatz)
