by Mary Anne

Created on: May 01, 2008   Last Updated: May 02, 2008

The Okapi is a large horse-like mammal native to North, central and eastern Congo. They live in dense, damp forests. They may live up to 33 years in captivity.

Gestation of an okapi is between 427 and 491 days. Mothers typically give birth to a single offspring, weighing about 35 pounds at birth.

An adult Okapi is about 7 to 8 feet long, and their shoulder height is 5 to 6 feet. They may weigh between 465 and 550 pounds. Interestingly, female Okapis are usually larger than their male counterparts.

An Okapi's diet consists of buds, shoots of trees, grass, ferns, fruit, fungi and manioc. Interestingly, it consumes plenty of plants that are known to be highly toxic to humans and other mammals. Scientists still do not know how the Okapi manage to eat poisonous plants without becoming ill. According to one theory, the Okapi eat charcoal from burned trees and use the charcoal to neutralize the poison. Traces of charcoal have been found in Okapi dung. This type of behavior has been witnessed among other animal species, such as the red colobus monkeys in Zanzibar.

Okapis have a solid body with a back that slopes slightly, similar to that of a giraffe but with a significantly shorter neck. Their body is covered with short, sleek hair. The sides of their rumps and the upper portion of their limbs have white horizontal stripes of varying width while much of the rest of their body is almost black with a lighter color face resembling that of a zebra. Okapis also have large, dark eyes, big ears, and a long black tongue which they use to strip leaves from branches, similar to that of the giraffe. Males have small, hair-covered horns, also similarly to giraffes. These animals live in the wild alone, in pairs, or in small family groups, but never in herds. They are closely related to the giraffe.

Wildlife Conservation Society has been involved in okapi conservation efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, since the early 1980s. In 1992, that nation announced the creation of an okapi wildlife reserve that is roughly the size of Connecticut. This reserve is home to many other rain forest animal and plant species.

The stripes on an Okapi's legs resemble a zebra, and it was originally believed to be related to to zebra, or even a hybrid between a zebra and a giraffe. Today it is known that the Okapi is related to the giraffe. Both the giraffe and the Okapi belong to the family Giraffidea in the order Artiodactly, while the various zebra species belong to the

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