This is an okapi
August 24, 2021 11:36 AM Subscribe
Cute okapi via chat. Wikipedia on okapis. Also known as the zebra giraffe.
I just made this post to show you a cute okapi. But here's an article from the Okapi Conservation Project so that my post can stick around. In it, we learn that the okapi is endangered and there's only like 10,000 left, down from a lot more. And that they can hold their poop for two months. Here's another photo. Here's a fun little listicle in which we learn that they have superpowers and can lick their own ears [with their prehensile tongues].
previously
previously
I just made this post to show you a cute okapi. But here's an article from the Okapi Conservation Project so that my post can stick around. In it, we learn that the okapi is endangered and there's only like 10,000 left, down from a lot more. And that they can hold their poop for two months. Here's another photo. Here's a fun little listicle in which we learn that they have superpowers and can lick their own ears [with their prehensile tongues].
previously
previously
I love okapis. We sent to the local zoo about a month ago, and they have a pair. While we were there, the male was clearly interested in mating, the female not so much. It was an awkward dance. He gave up pretty quickly.
posted by Quonab at 12:26 PM on August 24, 2021
posted by Quonab at 12:26 PM on August 24, 2021
Hthe female not so much
More of a Nokapi, then
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:34 PM on August 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
More of a Nokapi, then
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:34 PM on August 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
They are very cute! I didn't know because I had previously only seen okapis in their natural habitat, the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. (Also home to the gnu, the eland, and the orca.)
posted by Daily Alice at 12:36 PM on August 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 12:36 PM on August 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
This post has been up for an hour and mefi chat has not yet been flooded by people looking for more pictures of okapiae?
posted by trotz dem alten drachen at 12:38 PM on August 24, 2021
posted by trotz dem alten drachen at 12:38 PM on August 24, 2021
Greg_Ace: "More of a Nokapi, then"
nokapi means nokapi!
posted by chavenet at 12:47 PM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
nokapi means nokapi!
posted by chavenet at 12:47 PM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
The Maryland Zoo has quite a few lovely okapi, and I enjoyed spending a portion of a rainy vacation day in their barn with one of the docents.
I also have a series of photos of an okapi at dusk from our stay at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in a folder somewhere. As it gets dark, the okapi just disappears into the shadows.
Okapis are amazing and majestic, and I love every chance I get to see them.
posted by bfranklin at 12:52 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I also have a series of photos of an okapi at dusk from our stay at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in a folder somewhere. As it gets dark, the okapi just disappears into the shadows.
Okapis are amazing and majestic, and I love every chance I get to see them.
posted by bfranklin at 12:52 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was 33 years old when I discovered the existence of Okapi, at Chester Zoo. I still cannot believe that there is such a large and distinctive mammal, that I had never even heard of before.
posted by plonkee at 1:28 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by plonkee at 1:28 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I actually meant to link to this page on the Okapi Conservation website, oops. In which we learn lots of things about the okapi, such as this about its name:
Okapi derives from the name given to it by the Lese tribes local to the area of its discovery. They called it ‘o’api’, which is a compound of two Lese words, oka, a verb meaning to cut, and kpi, a noun referring to the design made on pygmy arrows by wrapping the arrow with bark so as to leave stripes when scorched by fire. The stripes on the legs of the okapi resemble these stripes on the arrow shafts.posted by aniola at 9:17 PM on August 24, 2021
A few years ago my partner and I wrote an ad featuring an okapi to sell a 2-in-one computer (it was set at a zoo, probably would have been done with cgi, no okapis would be harmed in the making of, etc). The client didn’t buy the spot because they had never heard of an okapi, took one look at the photo in the storyboard and thought we were making it up.
posted by Mchelly at 6:17 AM on August 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 6:17 AM on August 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
I definitely want these pants.
posted by Oyéah at 7:02 PM on August 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 7:02 PM on August 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
That is an exceptionally cute okapi.
Londoners may recognise the okapi not only from London Zoo, but also from Mildreds vegetarian restaurants.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:43 AM on August 26, 2021
Londoners may recognise the okapi not only from London Zoo, but also from Mildreds vegetarian restaurants.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:43 AM on August 26, 2021
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(just kidding, it's a cute okapi indeed.)
posted by chavenet at 11:40 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]