With the phrase “dwarf giraffes, ” the imagination automatically helpfully provides a picture of an animal familiar from childhood, only in a reduced copy. However, the reality is not quite so. Outwardly, this amazing animal does not at all resemble its long-necked relative. What is the name of the pygmy giraffe really? Where does he live? Under what circumstances was this amazing creature discovered?
Homeland okapi
In the natural environment, okapi live only in one single place on our planet - in the northeastern territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a marshland, located between three large lakes, overgrown with impenetrable rainforest.
It is in these wilds that dwarf giraffes are hiding. The fact that they became known to science only in 1901 is evidence of how suitable they were for a quiet life of animals. And this news made a splash in the circles of specialists.
Discovery of a new mammal
For the first time about an unknown animal in his book, G.M. Stanley, a researcher of Africa, casually mentioned. This fact seriously interested Harry Johnston, who was at that time the governor of Uganda. Information about okapi (the so-called local pygmy aborigines) was only collected bit by bit. And in the literal sense of the word.
Johnston first got a couple of trimmings of okapi skin. Then he managed to see two skulls and a whole skin. Having received a copy of the okapi skull, Johnston immediately realized that this animal is a close relative of the giraffe. He sent all the data to London. There, a new species was officially named Okapi Johnston.
Strange combination
Okapi pygmy giraffes look pretty cute, but it’s very difficult to discard the idea that this is some incredible combination of different animals. From the croup to the middle of the hind legs, they have the colors of a zebra. The same stripes on the upper part of the forelegs. At the bottom, all four limbs are completely white, but at the base of the hooves passes a wide black stripe.
The body shape is most similar to an antelope, but the size of an okapi is about the size of a horse. The ears are large and long, and the horns are almost invisible. But the language of dwarf giraffes can compete even with an anteater. It is so long that the animal calmly cleans its eyes and ears, both inside and out.
The tongue of a blue okapi is like that of a dog of the Chow Chow breed or of a giraffe. With this very sticky and mobile organ, they cleverly cut off the delicate foliage from the trees.
