Why is this animal unusual?
It looks like a zebra-horse mix, but its closest relative is the giraffe. Look at the head and you’ll see it: the same long face, the same skin-covered horns on the males, the same tongue.
Why does it look like that?
The stripes on its backside work as camouflage in the striped light of the forest – and help a calf follow its mother through the gloom. The fur is velvety and slightly oily, so rain runs straight off.
Strangest biological feature
The tongue. It’s dark blue, about 35 cm long and so flexible that an okapi can wash its own eyelids and clean its ears with it.
Why is it strange?
A newborn okapi doesn’t poop for the first month or more of its life. Scientists think it’s a trick to avoid leaving a smell that leopards could follow.
Interesting behavioral facts
Okapis live alone and talk to each other with calls too low for human ears. Scent glands on their feet leave sticky, tar-like marks wherever they walk.
Records held
It’s the national animal of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and appears on its banknotes. Early explorers called it the “African unicorn”.
