Okapis — Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Okapis

The okapi is one of the most unusual-looking animals in the world. With the body of a horse, the striped legs of a zebra, and a long flexible tongue like a giraffe, it looks like a collection of different animals. Despite appearances, the okapi is actually the giraffe’s only living relative. It was so elusive in its dense rainforest habitat that scientists did not officially discover it until 1900.

Okapis live in the tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. They are well-adapted to forest life: their dark brown coat helps them blend into shadowy undergrowth, while the white stripes on their hindquarters break up their outline among dappled light. Their large, mobile ears help them detect predators in the dense vegetation. Like giraffes, okapis have long blue-black tongues — up to 14 inches — which they use to strip leaves from branches and to groom themselves.

Okapis are solitary animals that maintain large home territories. Males use scent glands on their feet and urine marking to define their territory. Despite their size — up to 770 pounds — they are shy and secretive, rarely seen in the wild even by local people. They are ruminants, meaning they have a multi-chambered stomach and chew their cud, consuming up to 65 pounds of vegetation per day.

Okapi calves have a remarkable adaptation: they do not defecate for the first several weeks of life, which prevents their scent from attracting predators to the nest. The main predators of okapis are leopards. Okapis are listed as endangered, threatened by habitat loss from logging and mining, and by illegal hunting. They are protected by law in the Democratic Republic of Congo and are bred in zoos worldwide.

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