Okapi are such elegant and beautiful creatures and at first sight they look like deer because of the shape of their heads and bodies, or zebra because of their lovely stripy bottoms, but in fact they actually an ancestor of giraffes! They do actually have quite long necks and like giraffes the males fight using their necks; they also have a similar prehensile tongue to their giraffe descendants. Unlike giraffes though, they do make a noise, apparently it sounds like a ‘chuff’ sort of noise, perhaps as they are clearing their long throats! They were only known in the west in the last hundred years and were thought to be very rare; however they are just very shy and were fairly common in their quiet unobtrusive way. Sadly, they were put on the endangered species last year due to predation on their habitat and poaching.
Okapi live in the rain forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a very troubled and dangerous area… maybe it is more dangerous for humans than okapi. They live in the uplands, usually between 500-100 metres. They are daytime creatures, wandering around on their own, unless they are a mother and calf, they have a diet of over a hundred different plant items, leafs, shoots, fruit, berries, fungi – things which are poisonous to other animals and to humans, and also a sort of red clay for the minerals and salt it contains.
One other thing I learned about the okapi, due to the length of their tongue they can lick their own ears… which is slightly yuk!
Lois Elsden 
This was such a nice post. I did not know much about them before this one. I love the way you had such a ‘catchy’ title, too!
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Thank you! They are adorable!
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