Okapi

Okapi is a mammal from Congo, Central Africa, which has close relation to giraffe. Generally, Okapi’s coat is brown to reddish, it has white fur on its legs with black strips resemble to Zebra, so much contrast to its brown body. It functions to disappear itself into a dense vegetation. Okapi has long neck with large and flexible ears. Okapi’s body length is about 2.5 m and weight from 200 to 350kg. Male Okapis have short horns called ossicones, no more than 15cm. They are covered by fur while females Okapis do not, but they remain to have fur, and longer. Okapi has greyish color on its face, chest and neck. It has four interdigital glands on its legs and front legs are bigger.

The differences and the similarities between Okapi and Giraffe can be seen clearly. Okapi is much smaller than Giraffe. Okapi tends to be like Deer and Zebra, including its body size. The shape of its body resembles to deer while the four legs are similar to zebra. People may think that Okapi is an interbreeding between Deer and Zebra though both of them are different species, but Okapi has its own independent line of descent. Both male Okapi and Giraffe have horns but only female Okapi does not. Okapi and Giraffe also have long and black tongue functions to pluck the leaves and do grooming, but Okapi’s tongue is longer. Basically, alike a Giraffe, Okapi is herbivore. It eats plants, leaves, fruits, fungi and buds. Okapi can be active at night but only few hours, it is an individual animal which comes together only for breeding.

Usually, a female Okapi reaches its maturity and ready to mate when it is one and a half year old, while male Okapi reaches its sexually mature after two years. Actually there is no mating season of this species, the male and female Okapi reaches a cycles of estrus every 15 days. They begin to have a courtship by cycling each other, smelling and licking. The Okapi express its dominance by extending the neck, tossing the head and its one food forward followed by mounting and copulation. The pregnancy of a female Okapi is usually during 440 to 450 days and it is followed by a single baby Okapi weighing 14-30kg. The udder of a pregnant Okapi swells 2 months before the giving birth process. Parturition occurs in 3-4 hours and usually the female Okapi remains standing during this period. The milk production of a female Okapi contains of much protein and low fat. The infant can stand after 30 minutes after the birth. Similar to the adult Okapi, the infant has brown coat and false eyelashes and white hair in the strips. This shape will disappear a year after the birth. After some months from the birth, the infant grows quickly and after that reduces gradually. The juveniles take their solid food after 3 months and weaning happens after 6 months. The development of the horns occurs after a year after birth. The life of Okapi is about 20 to 30 years.