Okapi!

[redbird]

The Bronx Zoo has a five-month-old okapi, and cattitude and I went to see if she was visible this afternoon. The zoo website warned that the okapi would only be on display until "mid-November" because when it gets cold they have to bring them indoors, and the only okapi viewing area is outdoors in the Congo exhibit.

It turned out to be an excellent day to look at okapi. Reasonably warm (around 60F/15C), with some sunshine and not much wind, and late enough in fall that the trees were mostly bare, so the okapis weren't hidden behind lots of leaves.


We spent a long time looking at the two okapi, adult and half-grown colt, as they walked around and browsed. They both ate lots of bamboo—those long, agile tongues are specialized for stripping leaves off branches—and the young one also ate some dead leaves she picked up from the ground. At one point she jumped in the air and backed away from something, looking as though she'd either been stung or eaten something she disliked, but it might have been just the taste of oak.

We were there long enough to watch a lot of people walk by, ask each other "what is it?" and read a not-very informative sign that at least said that the animal is called an okapi and lives in the Ituri rain forest in the Congo. Probably more than half the people compared the okapi to zebras, because they have stripes on part of their bodies; the startling remarks were things like said things like "it looks like it's half horse and half zebra" or even one person who compared it to horse, zebra, and donkey. (I held my tongue and did not point out how closely related those three animals are.) A few people asked, and I said that it was related to the giraffe: one commented on the similarities of the head shapes. But the main thing was a lot of time just watching the okapi either interact or just browse (they're not very social animals, and the young one seems to have been weaned).

We walked through the rest of the Congo exhibit fairly quickly, only glancing at the gorillas (the stars of that exhibit, which is called "Congo Gorilla Forest") on our way out. We then took a quick look at the giraffes, because we'd noticed the okapis had short manes on their necks and wanted to see if giraffes do (they were too distant for us to be sure, but it looked like they might).

On our way past the cafeteria and main gift shop, we passed a setup for marshmallow roasting. They were selling either just marshmallows or s'mores. I hadn't had a s'more in years, and it was tempting, so I bought and toasted a couple of marshmallows. A small child toasting marshmallows at the same time had his over a low flame. I found an area with much more visible flame. After burning one side, blowing out the flames, and then repeating with the other, I carried my marshmallows over to a table where another zoo employee put them between graham crackers, with the canonical square of chocolate. It was tasty, and this will probably do for several years (though if I had a chance to use dark chocolate I might want them again sooner).

We also visited the Madagascar exhibit, where we looked at lemurs and radiated tortoises. They are actively breeding the tortoises. (Okay, it's the tortoises that seemed actively involved, but we also saw several little tortoises in one of the exhibit areas.)

There's a video of the okapis on the zoo's website. Not as cool as seeing them live, but they won't be out much longer, and by spring the young one will be close to full-grown.

Comments

"many months of delicate husbandry work"

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Uh, is there a body of totally embarrassing zoological fan-fic somewhere? :D

[light-of-summer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for writing about the okapi, and including the link to the video! I enjoyed seeing the video and reading about them. (I learned what an okapi was when quite young, from ViewMaster stereo slides, but have seen very little about them in the intervening decades.)

[ellarien]

Yes, giraffes do have manes.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

This is a really lovely post.