ZOOLOGY 383 



]io(li, it has been constituted liy Professor Kay Lankester a se])arate genus, 

 to wliicli he has given the name Okiiiila. 



So far as is yet known, the existing range of the okapi is conHiied 

 to the northern |iart of the Congo Forest, near the SeniHki h'ivci-. The 

 okapi is found in the little territory of jAIhoga, which is an outlying 

 portion of the Uganda Protectorate. It is also found in the adjoinino- 

 })rovince of the Congo Free State. This same forest, I l)elieve, conceals 

 other wonders besides the okajji, not yet brought to light, including 

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

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

 to the J^elgians. A careful search might reveal several other sti-Hn<'-e 

 additions to the world's mammalian fauna. 



Quite recently fossil remains of giraffe-like animals have been found 

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

 Southern Europe. It is prol)able tliat the okapi and the giraffe are the 

 last two surviving forms of this grou]) in tropical Africa. The giraffe has 

 esca})ed extermination from the attacks of carnivorous animals bv developing 

 keen sight, wary habits, and a size of enormous bulk. The giraffe, unlike 

 the okapi, prefers relatively open country, dotted with low acacia trees, 

 on which it feeds. Towering up above these trees, the girafie 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 jjossiblv 

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

 lions, the onlv creature besides man which can do it any harm. Man, 

 of course, has doiu' his level best to exterminate the mammoth, the 

 Fr 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, wliere 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 

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

 on the searcli 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 oka[)i from extinction. 



All three species of African buffalo — Bos cafer (the well-known South 

 or East African buffalo) ; Bos tequinoctiaHs, the Central African buffalo of 

 Abyssinia and Lake Chad; and Bos pumilus, 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 

 l)art of the District of Toro. Its range extends to the easternmost limits 



