OKAPI'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 9

OKAPI'S DEATH

LOSS IN LONDON ZOO

ißrltlsb Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, November-4.

The okapi which was given in July to the London Zoo by the Prince of Wales, who received it as a gift from the King of the Belgians, died suddenly today.

The cause is at present "unknown, but the loss is much regretted as there are only two other specimens in captivity in Europe.

The okapi belongs to the same family as the giraffes, but is not particularly giraffe-like in general form. The head is giraffe-like, but very much larger in proportion to the rest of the body; the fully-grown male has small horns rather similar to those of the giraffe, but they lack the covering of skin and are situated further down the front of the head, nearer the eyes, and not or the crown; the ears are large and thin. The neck is long, but not very long, and is of fairly uniform thickness. The body is deep, but has .far less slope from shoulder to croup than thi giraffe's. The legs are longish and slender; the hooves are cloven, but spread v^ry slightly. The colour is a deep chocolate or purplish-red, broken up by some whitish horizontal stripes,- oh the hindquarters and the upper legs, and by whitish regions on the head and lower legs. The height is about five feet to the top of the shoulder.