In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas and The Classic of Nanshan", such an animal is recorded: "The mountain of Zhuyang has beasts, its shape is like a horse and a white head, its text is like a tiger and a red tail, its sound is like a ballad, its name is Lu Shu, pei zhi yi descendants." "This deer shu is confirmed to be a okapi (p) distributed in the sweltering rainforests of central Africa.
Okapi, belonging to the genus Hoga of the giraffe family, is a strange animal distributed in the rainforests of Congo and Uganda, and the first of the top ten mysterious animals in the world (the image ambassador of the Mystical Zoological Society). It weighs about 300 kilograms, has a body length of 2-2.5 meters, and a shoulder height of 1.5 meters, until 1901, when it was discovered by European scientists and was included and studied by modern biology. But in fact, the ancient Egyptians have long known its existence, and some frescoes and reliefs, as well as tribute lists, have recorded the existence of The Okapi.
At first glance, the Okapi looks more like a horse, and because it has the same graceful buttocks as a zebra and alternating black and white stripes, it looks very much like a zebra. Coupled with its giraffe horns, in the past some people thought that the okapi was a species produced by the mating of giraffes and zebras, but it actually has nothing to do with zebras, unlike mules, don't misunderstand. This proves that giraffes are innocent and zebras are innocent!
The tongue of the Okapi is blue, and like the giraffe, it is about 30 cm long and flexible. Okapi uses its tongue to roll up the young leaves of the tree, and can also use it to clean their nostrils, eyes, and often wash their own faces... However, the main function is to eat leaves.
According to biologists, Okapi has another special ability, sleeping only 5 minutes a day! God knows how they do it! The main reason for this is that Okapi lives alone, does not live in groups like giraffes, and in order to survive, he has to sleep less and run more.
Although it has only been discovered by humans for more than 100 years, its number has been greatly reduced. Before they were discovered, they inhabited only deep mountain forests, and their natural enemies were only cheetahs (cheetahs were not very interested in them, and cheetahs liked to hunt social animals). It wasn't until 1909 that Europeans captured the first live okapi to transport to Europe, and many hunters competed with each other for years to hunt them and transport them to European zoos for captivity. At present, the Okapi in Uganda has become extinct, and there are only about 4,000 wild ones left in the Congo, plus nearly 30,000 in captivity around the world (there are no zoos in China, and only Japan in the whole of Asia).
The Latin name Okapia johnstoni, the genus name Okapia is taken from the locals' name o'api, and its species name johnstoni is in honor of Harry Johnston, who first acquired the skull of Okapi.
The locals in the Congolese rainforest were always aware of the presence of the Okapi, and they used traps to hunt the Okapi.
The ancient Egyptians also knew of the existence of the Okapi, and soon after the Discovery of the Okapi in Europe, a mural with the Okapi was discovered in Egypt. One of the carvings at the site of Spolis is a tribute to the Darius dynasty from all over the place, a procession consisting of members with distinctly African characteristics and an unknown animal, this animal with long horns on its head, a long neck, long forelimbs, short hind limbs, and even hooves, with the characteristics of being domesticated, it feels a bit silly. The reliefs in Persepolis are slightly exaggerated, but the overall realism, the animals in the tribute procession of various countries such as cows, camels, lions and even donkeys are recognizable at a glance, only this animal strangely stands on the far side, this animal is marked okapia, Chinese the translated name is Okapia, is a close relative of the giraffe. Later, when Henry Morton Stanley went there on an expedition, locals reported that there were animals in the dense forest similar to the horses stanley brought with him. At the time, many people speculated about what kind of animal this was. Some have even called it the "African unicorn". Sir Harry Johnston, the British governor of Uganda at the time, saw some of the footprints of these animals, and he had already discovered that these footprints were not the footprints of horses living in the forest, but the footprints of even-hoofed animals.
It was not until 1900 that the London Zoological Society acquired the fur of some local hunters of the Okapi. At that time, zoologists named the unknown species Equalus johnstoni, which means that it was classified as a horse genus. But after a nearly complete coat and two skulls arrived in Europe in June 1901, zoologists recognized that it was wrong to classify them into horses, and soon recognized the similarities between these animals and fossils of short-necked giraffes from the European ice age.
It wasn't until 1909 that the whites captured a live Okapi, after many hunters had competed in vain for years to become the first white man to hunt a Hogasso. In 1918 the first living Okapi was transported to Antwerp, Europe. In 1937 the Okapi reached the United States via Antwerp. Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, USA, breeds captive okapi for the first time. The zoo is also responsible for coordinating the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Okapi Survival Program. About 45 okapis are kept in captivity in the zoo.
On June 8, 2006, scientists reported signs of hoga baboons found in Congo's Virunga National Park. This was the first time since 1959 that the rediscovery of The Okapi was officially announced locally.