Okapi Hunting 



small skin-covered, bare pointed horns, is mostly greyish, 

 sometimes with a yellow tinge ; the ears, however, are dark 

 brown, large and sensitive like those of the tragelaphs,* and 

 formed to carry to their owner the merest suggestion of a 

 footfall or snapping twig. The head has the rounded and 

 pointed appearance of the giraffes — the nose, however, is 

 rather snout-like — the tongue long and prehensile. The 

 dark eye is small and not " f ull " like an animal 

 from the plains. The neck is only slightly elongated, but 

 with a heavy base and high withers. The hide is remark- 

 ably tough and the hoofs and spoor resemble those of a 

 small ox. The meat is considered a great delicacy by all 

 the forest tribes. 



The habits of the okapi resemble those of the bongo, the 

 kudu, and the bushbuck, and like these very shy animals 

 more often than not it is found alone. It is partly nocturnal 

 and fond of feeding in the late evening or at night when the 

 moon is out, and similarly with the tragelaphs its food con- 

 sists of fruits, flowers, bark, and some kinds of decayed wood, 

 as much as succulent shoots of trees and herbage. There 

 is no record as far as I am aware of the okapi uttering any 

 kind of call, either of alarm or otherwise. From observations 

 made on live specimens captured in the Congo, it has an amble 

 like a giraffe, but I am assured by the Pygmies and by white 

 men who have seen them, that when alarmed it appears to 

 bound through the forest undergrowth and at an incredible 

 speed. 



It is said that the first record of the existence of the 

 okapi is contained in drawings found on the walls of an ancient 

 Egyptian temple. Be that as it may there is no zoological 



* Members of the eland-kudu-bushbuck sub-family. 



