GIRAFFES AND OKAPI

There are two species in the Family Giraffudae - the giraffe and the okapi. Giraffes are the tallest of all animals with its long neck and lanky slender legs.

A bull can be 5.3m tall and a female nearly 5m tall.

There are several sub-species with different coat pattern. The reticulated giraffe has large chestnut patches separated by thin white lines. The Massai's giraffe has jagged orange-brown patches on lighter background.

The Giraffe's front leg is longer than their back leg. It gives a continuous slope from the horns down the neck, over the shoulder hump and short body to the tail with a metre-long tuft. The tail with its tuft is used to squad tsetse flies. They have large hooves. Males have bigger horns than females. They are covered with skin and at the end have black hairs.

Baby giraffes have soft horns which lie flat when they are born and then grow upright and hard.
With age, bulls develop bony lumps on their head that grow to look like extra horns.

OKAPI

The okapi has not been discovered till 1901 and it is still a mystery It lives in tense rain forests in the north and north-east of Zaire.

It has a velvety, dark purplish brown, strongly scented coat. On the hindquarters and upper legs it has dark and white  stripes. It has a height of about 1.5m at the shoulder. The male has skin-covered horns and a long bluish tongue with which it gathers food and licks itself clean including its eyes and feet.

Its teeth are like a giraffe's and its slit-kike nostrils it can close.

The okapi lives by itself and only seeks a female at mating times. It moves along regular tracks feeding on leaves, buds and shoots of forest vegetation.