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Striped Mammal Week: Okapi (Okapia johnstoni)

Posted on Mar 27, 2008 by in Theme Weeks, Ungulates | 5 comments

Okapia johnstoni

Number 0133

Here’s an okapi. I’ll write more about okapis tomorrow night. For now, just know that they’re related to giraffes and live in the rain forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (I’m also going to find out what the standard shortened form of Democratic Republic of the Congo is tomorrow, I hope.)

5 Comments

  1. according to most news outlets i read (and wikipedia), the standard english abbreviation is DRC. so now you can focus on the okapis!

  2. Jennifer: The okapi is beautiful. It looks like a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. what a great animal to learn of.

  3. Heather, you’re awesome! Thank you! Fishing Guy, I agree that okapis are really neat. I promised to write more about them, so here’s some interesting excerpts from my man Ivan T. Sanderson in Living Mammals of the World:

    “That an animal the size of a large ox and purple in color could hide in very fair numbers even in what was then ‘darkest’ Africa, not only points up the fact that the earth’s surface has not really been known until very recently but also stands as a warning to any who would state categorically that such creatures as Snowmen, Marsupial Tigers, and sundry marine animals of monstrous size do not and cannot exist.”

    Okapis weren’t known to science until 1900.

  4. Hey Jennifer!

    This is a nice opaki! :P

    Many thanks for checking out my version and filling me in.

  5. This is a fantastic drawing of an Okapi, I love your use of color. Must say that your undertaking of drawing a mammal a day is pretty incredible. I will be sure to check back to see more of your daily offerings.

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