508 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Some years ago it was reported in the region of Lodja. Now two 

 pieces of skin have been brought from the region south of Moma. 

 There are also reports from the region of Opala. (Schouteden, 1935, 

 pp. 9-10.) These localities are between latitude 1 and 4 S., and 

 longitude 23 and 25 E. ; or between the Lomami and Lukenie 

 Rivers. 



Now a specimen is recorded as taken in a native trap in the vicin- 

 ity of Lomela, toward latitude 2 S. This confirms a previous report 

 from Lomami. Its distributional area seems to coincide with the 

 contour of 500 m. M. Guilmot says the animal is not common on 

 the left bank, yet is not rare. Its presence there is known to all 

 the Europeans of the region. (Schouteden, 1936, pp. 14-15.) 



Although there had been vague previous reports of this animal 

 by Stanley, Junker, Marchand, and Stuhlmann, it was Sir Harry 

 Johnston who really brought the Okapi to scientific attention by 

 sending to P. L. Sclater in 1900 two strips of skin, in the form of 

 bandoliers, which he had purchased from natives at the post of 

 Mbeni on the Semliki River. Sclater, in the belief that these frag- 

 ments represented some unknown species of Zebra, proposed for 

 them the name Equus(l) johnstoni. When a complete skin and two 

 skulls were received from Sir Harry Johnston in 1901, the relation- 

 ship of the Okapi to the Giraffes became evident, and Lankester 

 established for it the genus Okapia, in the family Giraffidae. 



"The defenceless okapi . . . 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." (Johnston, 1902, 

 vol. 1, p. 383.) 



"There are certainly many thousand individuals of it inhabiting 

 the forest of this region. . . . The natives are extremely reluctant 

 to penetrate far into the forest, and hence it is that the Okapi is 

 but seldom seen and is known chiefly to the Wambutti or Akka, 

 the dwarf race who, like the Okapi itself, seek the recesses of the 

 forest as a protection against light-loving enemies." (Lankester, 

 1902, pp. 282-283.) 



"The Okapi is extremely wary and shy, and nocturnal in its 

 habits. It lives singly or perhaps in pairs, never in herds. The 

 negroes know very little about it, and, as a rule, it is only the Wam- 

 butti dwarfs who are able to kill it. ... 



"I am glad to be able to add that the Okapi is protected by law, 

 so that it is forbidden to kill it without special permission. The 



