Arte the Nubs on an Okapis Head Still Called Horns?

Common Name :

Okapis

Scientific Proper noun :

Okapia johnstoni

Type :

Mammals

Diet :

Herbivore

Average Life Bridge In Captivity :

30 years

Size :

Length, eight feet; meridian, five feet

Weight :

440 to 660 pounds

IUCN Cerise Listing Status :

Endangered

What is the okapi?

Known every bit the "wood giraffe," the okapi looks more similar a cross between a deer and a zebra. Notwithstanding, it'southward the giraffe's merely living relative. The okapi is native to the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo—the just place where it can be found in the wild—and has thick, oily fur to stay dry out in the rain. It likewise has scent glands on the lesser of its hooves that help mark its territory. Except for the tips, the okapi's short horns are covered in skin. While all males take horns, near females have knobby bumps instead.

Habitat and nutrition

The okapi lives among dumbo flora in the rainforest. Information technology can blend into its surroundings cheers to the brown and white stripes on its rump, which mimic the appearance of streaks of sunlight coming through the trees.

Its plant-based nutrition consists of fruits, buds, leaves, twigs, and other vegetation. Just similar the giraffe and moo-cow, the okapi has 4 stomachs that aid with digesting tough plants. Also similar its giraffe cousin, the okapi has a long, dark tongue that tin can strip leaves from branches. An okapi consumes between 45 and threescore pounds of food each day, including riverbed clay for minerals and common salt. It volition occasionally consume bat excrement for nutrients.

Beliefs and reproduction

Active during the 24-hour interval, the elusive okapi prefers to be alone. Its hooves secrete gluey territorial markings, while males also spray their territory with urine. Sometimes, yet, okapis will besiege in modest groups to eat, groom, and even play.

Female okapis typically have only one dogie per pregnancy. An okapi dogie is able to walk just 30 minutes after it's born but can't defecate until information technology'south at to the lowest degree a calendar month quondam—that way, the smell of feces won't concenter predators. While developed okapis don't vocalize much (except when they're ready to breed), calves will bleat, cough, and whistle when their mother is away. Okapi mothers communicate with their calves by making infrasounds, which are noises that are undetectable to the man ear. Female okapis are very protective of their young and will beat the footing with their hooves to ward off potential threats. However, upon reaching six months of historic period, a calf must fend for itself.

Threats to survival

According to the International Matrimony for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the okapi is endangered. While it's non articulate how many remain in the wild, scientists estimate that populations may have been slashed in half over the past two decades. Though the leopard is the okapi'south chief predator in the wild, human hunters pose a greater threat to the okapi's existence. In 2012, a militia group killed 14 okapis at a conservation center located at the headquarters of the Okapi Conservation Projection. Today, poachers continue to kill okapis for their meat and peel, and civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo makes enforcement of wildlife protection laws increasingly difficult. Human-induced deforestation too leads to fragmentation and destruction of crucial okapi habitats.

Conservation

Founded in 1987, the Okapi Conservation Project still exists, despite the savage attack on its headquarters in 2012. It supports the Okapi Biological reserve, a World Heritage Site in the Itiru Forest, habitation to five,000 okapis. The Okapi Conservation Project works with the Establish in Congo for the Conservation of Nature to provide resources to rangers who patrol the reserve and other okapi-occupied areas. The rangers' duties include detaining armed poachers earlier they tin kill okapis and monitoring agricultural expansion that could harm okapi habitats. IUCN has too teamed upward with other organizations, including the Zoological Gild of London, to implement a decade-long strategy to reduce illegal activeness that could drive the okapi to extinction.

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Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/okapi

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