Lu Shu in the Classic of Mountains and Seas - Huo Jialu

The Classic of Mountains and Seas once recorded such an animal, its shape is similar to a horse but has the same stripes as a tiger, the head is white but the tail is red, and the roar sounds like a beautiful song, which is the deer shu. In reality, there are really animals like Deer Shu, and when you first see it, you may think that it is a hybrid of a giraffe and a zebra, because its appearance can be called "four unlike", and its name is more distinctive called Okapi.

A fresco with a Hoga gale was found in Egypt, and a carving was made in the ruins of Spolis, Egypt, depicting a tribute procession with distinctly African characteristics, paying tribute to the Darius dynasty, this animal has long horns on its head, a long neck, long forelimbs, short hind limbs, and even hooves, which looks a bit cute. This animal is the Okapi, a close relative of the giraffe. The okapi are the only close relatives of giraffes, but surprisingly their ancestors lived in Europe and Asia, and their ancestors slowly evolved many strange-looking species, such as the Siva deer. With the constant change of the earth's climate and crustal movement, their ancestors migrated from the Asian steppes to the northern part of Africa, many close relatives of the Siva deer lived in Europe and Asia, with the earth's climate change, the grasslands of Africa and Asia became more and more barren, and slowly the Siva deer became extinct, only the offspring living in the African hinterland survived, and later because of the isolation of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, the offspring on both sides of the Rift Valley went to different evolutionary routes, and the offspring on the east side of the Rift Valley evolved into the current giraffe, The descendants of the western rift valley evolved into the present-day Okapi.

It was not until 1900 that the London Zoological Society received some of the fur of the okapi from other sources, and officially named it the okapi. In 1909 the first white man captured the first okapi, in 1918 the first live okapi was transported to Antwerp, Europe, in 1937 the hogah was transported from Antwerp to the United States, and the first artificial breed of the okapi at brookfield Zoo in Illinois, USA. Under the protection of the Okapi Survivor Program, there are now about 45 artificially bred Okapi. In 2009, the wild okapi was found in the Congo Virunga Reserve, which was the first time since 1959 that the wild okapi was found.

Okapi

This strange-looking animal is in the same family as giraffes, and assuming that giraffes and zebras can "intermarry", their offspring must look very similar to Okapi. The okapi leg has a zebra-like pattern, and some people once thought that the okapi was produced by the mating of giraffes and zebras, but in fact it is not a close relative of the zebra, and the okapi is a close relative of the giraffe, the same size as the horse, at first glance it looks like a deer, the face is exactly the same as the giraffe, but compared with the giraffe, its neck appears much shorter. However, there is also an extremely important similarity between the Okapi and the giraffe, that is, the bulge on the top of their heads, they are not horns, but the cartilage of Zhang You's fur, called the horn-like structure, in addition to the Okapi, there is only one creature on the earth that has this structure, that is, the giraffe, their horn-like structure is larger, the female has two on the head, and the male has a third in the middle of the head. So the Okapi is also known as the "unicorn of Africa". In addition to its strange appearance, another strange thing about the Okapi is the Bula Galang, which is able to stand up within 30 minutes of birth, which is a miracle compared to other animals in the steppe. Under normal circumstances, okapi cubs can rise to 3 times their birth weight in the first month of feeding, the fastest growing animal among herbivores in the same amount of time. Okapi also has another special ability, namely light sleep. They only need to sleep for an hour a day, and sleep according to the principle of "a small number of times", they only sleep for 5 minutes at a time, a dozen times a day, and then they can jump around with vigor. For them, everything between heaven and earth is a soft pillow and a warm bed, and they can sleep well no matter where they are. In addition, The Okapi has a special skill that they are proud of – they can secrete asphalt! In fact, it was not really asphalt, just a black lacquered oil shiny substance that resembled asphalt. There is a special gland on the feet of the Okapi that can secrete this asphalt-like substance, and through continuous walking, this substance is engraved like a footprint on the place where they walk, marking the territorial territory, and the Okapi in the family can find each other's place by this substance.