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.