Welcome to You Ask Andy

Sheila Venable, age 10, of Scottsboro, Alabama, for her question:

Where is the okapi's habitat?


A habitat is the place where a wild animal is most at home. There he finds his favorite foods, the climate suits him just fine and, as a rule, his coloring blends in with the natural scenery. The mule sized okapi feeds on greenery. He has a rich brown coat, white socks and some pale stripes. It's hard to imagine a suitable habitat for him. But, of course, there is such a place.

The okapi lives in a secret forest and until about 80 years ago, hardly anybody knew he was there. Since he is as big as a mule, it seems strange that the outside world did not find him sooner. However, he is a very shy fellow and very clever at hiding himself. What's more, few outsiders wanted to hack their way through his dense jungle.

His natural habitat is in east Africa, right where the equator crosses the valley of the River Congo. This is a region of tropical rain forest, where the steamy warm earth is crowded with all sorts of plants. Tall trees spread their tops over smaller trees and dense thickets. Tangled vines twine among the boughs. A few sunbeams and lots of raindrops stream down through the high branches. But the gloomy ground level is dark and damp.

The Congo rain forests stretch for many hundreds of miles across the heart of tropical Africa. But the okapi's home territory is not much larger than the state of Alabama. His world is not so gloomy as it sounds because there are secret clearings in the dense jungle. This is where the okapi likes to go to eat. But when a visitor approaches, he disappears back into the mysterious forest. There he follows his own private pathways through the tangled thickets.

You might mistake the okapi for a chocolate brown mule with some fancy blonde stripes. But he is not related to mules or horses. Actually he is a cousin of the skyscraper giraffe, who lives out in the open on the wide African plains. If the okapi's neck were longer and if he wore a patchwork coat . he would remind you of a "Rall giraffe”.

He walks on dainty, two toed hoofs. His socks are white with black bands around the knees and ankles. His face is milky white with a smudgy dark nose and a brown forehead, topped with large, brown, mule¬type ears. His upper legs and his rump are striped with narrow, wavy ribbons of milky white. He stands six feet tall and his back slopes downward to his skinny tail, which ends with a tuft of hair.

The gentle okapi is a vegetarian and he has a special tongue to gather his favorite food. It is 14 inches long and he uses it to grasp and gather grasses and forest ferns, fruits and tender leaves. And with his remarkable tongue can wash himself all over, including his ears.

The okapis look very showy    in a zoo. But in his natural habitat, he blends right in with the scenery. His pale face and dark coat match the patches of sunlight in the forest gloom. The wavy light and dark stripes on his legs and rump match the streaks of sunlight and shadow among the tall grasses in the clearings.

 

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