Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Can you lick your ears clean? How about your eye lids?
Ranger Rani just met with a creature that can do it. What a strange creature it is!
It looks like a zebra, but is related to giraffe.
Meet the Okapi (say oh-COP-ee), the only living relative of giraffe today. They have large, upright ears, which twist and twitch to capture the slightest of sounds in the forest. Using their long tongue, they strip the buds and tender leaves from the understory brush of rainforest trees.
Look closely at an Okapi. It has zebra-like stripes at the back. Ranger Rani was startled to see the white stripes on the animal. What use could the stripes be for the animal?
In the dark, dense evergreen forests of Africa, Okpai’s bold marking are a great camouflage. Wonder how? In the sunlight filtering through the canopy, the stripes of the canopy make the Okapi almost invisible. Another practical use of the stripes may be to lead the young calves to follow their mothers through the dark forest.
The Okapis are herbivores and eat tree leaves, buds, grass, fruits, fruit, mushroom and all kinds of plants growing in the forests. They are voracious eaters. Okapi get their salt and minerals by eating the clay found near the rivers and streams. They also eat the charcoal from trees burned by lightning.
Although related to the giraffe, Okapi is a short animal. Wonder why aren’t they as tall as giraffes? May be it’s the adaptation to the habitat the Okapi lives in. In a rain forest, with trees and branches hanging down, long neck would be a disadvantage. Having a tall neck also means that the feet have to be long. The forest floor is filled with roots and tree trunks making it tricky to navigate on the floor.
Want to see a group of Okapis? Unlike giraffes which can be often found in towers (as groups of giraffes are known), Okapis are solitary. Mother and young animals live together, but adults almost always come together only for breeding.
