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Okapi, half-zebra half-giraffe
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Okapi, Half-zebra Half-giraffe

The tongue of the okapi is long enough for the animal to wash its eyelids and clean its ears (inside and out). 35 to 46 centimetres (14 to 18 in) in length, the sticky tongue is pointed and bluish grey in colour like the giraffe's. 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 metres (6.2 to 8.2 ft) long and stand 1.5 to 2.0 metres (4.9 to 6.6 ft) high at the shoulder. They have a 30 to 42 centimetres (12 to 17 in) long tail. Their weight ranges from 200 to 300 kilograms (440 to 660 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 providing evidence that they don't only feed during 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 development and other social reasons. However, okapis tolerate each other in the wild and may even feed in small groups for short periods of time.
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.

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Filename:319416.jpg
Album name:Fauna & Flora
Rating (1 votes):55555
Keywords:#okapi #half #zebra #half #giraffe
Filesize:72 KiB
Date added:Sep 23, 2010
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