How do okapis get their food

They have overlapping home ranges, males tending to have larger territories than females, which an individual will mark with both urine and rubbing its neck on trees. The males use their necks also to fight one another both to settle disputes about territory and when competing for access to females in the breeding season. They communicate using quiet "chuff" noises and in the forest they strongly rely on their hearing, as they do not have good eyesight. Okapis are mainly herbivores, they eat the leaves, shoots and buds of over species of forest vegetation.

They also eat grasses, ferns, fruits, and fungi. Okapis are solitary in the wild, primarily coming together for mating, which indicates a polygynous mating system one male mating with multiple females. Young are born from August through October. After gestation of up to 16 months, a mother retreats into dense vegetation to give birth to a single offspring. Usually the calf can stand within 30 minutes and the mother and her baby begin looking for a good nest place.

They stay in the nest for two months, affording the necessary protection from hungry predators. The calf is usually weaned at about the age of 6 months but may suckle from its mother for over a year. The youngest female in captivity to breed was the age of 1 year and 7 months, and the youngest male, 2 years 2 months.

Deforestation and loss of habitat to agriculture and human settlements are threats for the okapi. They are also poached for meat and their unique pelts.

Being herbivores, narbaleks may have a role in the structuring of plant communities. They may also affect predator populations, as items of prey.

They may also affect predator populations leopards and jaguars , as items of prey. Okapia johnstoni. Population size. Life Span. Photos with Okapi. Distribution Okapis live throughout the central, eastern and northern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as east and north of the Congo River.

They feed on leaves, fruits, grasses and some species of fungi. They also eat a reddish clay that provides essential salt and minerals. Okapi are not social animals. They do not seek companionship, although they may feed together in small groups for a short period of time. They prefer to live alone in large, secluded areas which is becoming increasingly difficult for them as their rainforest habitat shrinks.

The okapi is similar in many ways to its towering cousin, the giraffe. Both have cloven hooves and short, skin-covered horns. Both have long necks although, yes, the giraffe wins the longest neck contest. Most impressively, both have super long, prehensile, flexible, bluish tongues that are excellent leaf pluckers. Both male and female okapi travel within home ranges that may overlap. They live alone or in mother-offspring pairs. Okapi mark their territory by spraying urine, secreting a black tar-like substance from scent glands on each foot, and rubbing their necks on trees.

Males will defend their territories from other males but will allow females to pass through. To show dominance, one okapi will raise its head above the other. To show submission, an okapi will lay its head and neck on the ground.

When male rivals clash, they kick and bash each other with their large heads. Okapi are certainly known to each other and to the predators that hunt them, but they remain relatively mysterious to the scientific community. Because they are reclusive animals that live in habitat not easily explored, scientists have not studied them intensively.

A male okapi can travel more than two miles a day, feeding and scent-marking its territory to warn off other males. An okapi stands about 5 feet tall. Females are heavier than males, weighing to pounds. Males weigh to pounds and are slightly shorter than females. Males have short horns covered with hair, like those of the giraffe. Females lack horns. Okapi live up to 30 years in captivity.

They are solitary animals, living alone except during mating season or when an adult female has a calf. They are very wary and secretive. Their color and markings allow them to blend into the background of the rain forest underbrush. Okapi have a low reproductive rate.