Okapi - Characteristics and Behaviour

Characteristics and Behaviour

Okapis have reddish dark backs, with striking horizontal white stripes on the front and back legs, making them resemble zebras from a distance. These markings possibly help young follow their mothers through the dense rain forest and may also serve as camouflage.

The body shape is similar to that of the giraffe, except that okapis have much shorter necks. Like the giraffe, the okapi has long legs and a robust body. Both species have very long (approximately 35 centimetres), flexible blue tongues used to strip leaves and buds from trees.

The okapi's tongue is also long enough for the animal to wash its eyelids and clean its ears (inside and out). This sticky tongue is pointed and bluish grey in colour like that of the giraffe. Male okapis have short, skin-covered horns called ossicones. They have large ears, which help them detect their predator, the leopard.

Okapis are 1.9 to 2.5 m (6.2 to 8.2 ft) long (from the head to the base of the tail) and stand 1.5 to 2.0 m (4.9 to 6.6 ft) high at the shoulder. They have a 30 to 42 cm (12 to 17 in) long tail. Their weight ranges from 200 to 350 kg (440 to 770 lb).

Okapis are primarily diurnal, although recent photo captures have challenged this long-held assumption. One photograph taken at 02:33 am shows an okapi feeding in the Watalinga forest in the north of the Virunga National Park in eastern DRC, thus demonstrating that they don't feed only in the daytime. Okapis are essentially solitary, coming together only to breed, with the exception of mothers and offspring. Breeding behaviours include sniffing, circling and licking each other.

Okapis forage along fixed, well-trodden paths through the forest. They have overlapping home ranges of several square kilometres and typically occur at densities of about 0.6 animals per square kilometre (about 1.5 animals per square mile). They are not social animals, and prefer to live in large, secluded areas. This has led to problems with the okapi population due to the shrinking size of the land they live on. This lack of territory is caused by human land development and other limiting social factors.

Okapis have several methods of communicating their territory, including scent glands on each foot that produce a tar-like substance, as well as urine marking. Males are protective of their territory, but allow females to pass through their domain to forage.