ZOOLOGY 383 



both, it has been constituted by Professor Kay Lankester a separate genus, 

 to which he has given the name Okapia. 



80 far as is yet known, the existing range of the okapi is confined 

 to the northern part of the Congo Poorest, near the Semhki Kiver. The 

 okapi is found in the h'ttle territory of jNIboga, wliich is an outlying 

 portion of the Uganda Protectorate. It is also found in the adjoining 

 province of the Congo Free State. This same forest, I believe, conceals 

 otlier wonders besides the okapi, not yet brought to light, including 

 enormous gorillas. I have seen photographs of these huge apes, taken 

 from dead animals which have been killed by the natives and brought in 

 to the Belgians. A careful search might reveal several other strano-e 

 additions to the world's mammalian fauna. 



(,>uite recently fossil remains of giraffe-like animals have been found 

 in Lower Egypt, as well as in Arabia, India, Greece, Asia IMinor, and 

 Southern Europe. It is probalile that the okapi and the giraffe are the 

 last two surviving forms of this group in tropical Africa. The giraffe has 

 escaped extermination from the attacks of carnivorous animals by developing 

 keen siglit, wary hal:)its, and a size of enormous bulk. The giraffe, unlike 

 the oka[»i, prefers relatively open countr}', dotted with low acacia trees, 

 on which it feeds. Towering up above these trees, the giraffe with its 

 large eyes can scan the surrounding country from an altitude of twenty 

 feet above the ground, and in this way during the daytime, and possibly 

 on nights that are not too dark, can detect the approach of a troop of 

 lions, the only creature besides man which can do it any harm. ^fan, 

 of course, has done liis level best to exterminate the mammoth, the 

 I r ox, the quagga, the dodo, and the auk. But for the presence of man, 

 the giraffe might have been one of the lords of the earth. The defence- 

 less okapi, however, only survived by slinking into the densest parts of 

 the Congo Forest, where the lion never penetrates, and where the leopard 

 takes to a tree life and lives on monkeys. The only human enemies of 

 the okapi hitherto have been the Congo Dwarfs and a few Bantu negroes 

 who dwell on the fringe of the Congo Forest. How much longer the 

 okapi will survive now that the natives possess guns and collectors are 

 on the search for this extraordinary animal, it is impossible to say. It 

 is to be hoped, however, -earnestly, that both the British and Belgian 

 Governments will combine to save the okapi from extinction. 



All three species uf African buffalo — Bos cajf'er (the well-known South 

 or P^ast African buffalo) ; Bos cequioioctialis, the Central African buffalo of 

 Abyssinia and Lake Chad; and Bos puTnilus, the little red Congo buffalo — 

 are represented in the Uganda Protectorate. The last-named is only found 

 within these limits in the country on the Congo border, in the western 

 part of the District of Toro. Its range extends to the easternmost limits 



