weekly animal spotlight 1: the okapi

If you are reading this right now, you probably do not know what an okapi is or if it even exists.  It does exist and it is a animal that lives in the Congo of Africa.  Their scientific name is Okapia Johnstoni. An okapis fur is dark and it has stripes on it's legs.  They have a similar body shape to their only reletive the giraffe ( Girrafa Camiloparis) exept they do not have as long a neck as a giraffe. it has a long, flexible, blue tongue and eats leaves with it. the males have skin-covered horns called occicones on their head. They have long ears to help them detect predetors, such as the leopard ( Panthera Pardus). They are very shy and rarely seen. Occasionally they will eat charcoal. The okapi was not beleived to be real until the 20th century. the tribesman would tell stories of a kind of

Donkey that resembled a zebra. later it was confirmed to be a real species. an okapi was later shipped to the Antwerp zoo in Europe. and later another shipped to the Bronx zoo. Patrick Putnam built a research area known as Epulu, and it was used to capture okapis and send them to zoos around the world. nowadays it is the Okapi research station were they capture and study Okapis. okapis have been endangered since 2003 and are protected. Okapis are a shy and little known animal.

ethiopian wolf

the ethiopian wolf is a wolf that lives in the ethiopian highlands. it is about the same size as a coyote (or prairie wolf). it has a very long and narrow skull and red and white fur. they live in seven isolated mountain ranges at 3,000- 4,500 meters. there are an estimated 360- 440 living in the ethiopian highlands making them criticly endangered! other names for it include the abyssinian wolf, simian fox, ethiopian jackal, red jackal, abyssinian dog, and cuberow. the earliest discription of them comes from aberdeen bestiary. he wrote, ethiopia produces wolfs with manes so diversly colored, men say, that no hue is lacking. a charicteristic of  ethiopian wolfs is that they are extremely great jumpers. they never attack men however. in wenter they have a very long coat. but in summer they are hairless. the ethiopians call them theas. end qoute. they have two subspeices the northern ethiopian wolf, and the southern ethiopian wolf. suprisingly, unlike most large canids there favorite food is rats. but will also eat rock hyraxes, and occaisionally sedge leaves.