Observational Journal
Introduction:
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Day 1: Today I am excited to say that we have made it safely across the world to the wonderful Continent of Africa, in the Ituri Rain forest I step off the small jet that took us all the way from the U.S. to our destination. Right away I see trees everywhere, as far as the eye can see. There are some hills, but the amount is numbered. Out of the corner of my eye I see a small animal run through the forestation and grab onto a nearby tree and swing its small body across the branches. I'm so excited to be able to monitor and explore more about the fascinating animal, the Okapi. I was half expecting to see many Okapi species just roaming the great land, but was very disappointed to not be able to set my eyes on the animal. I saw that there were a few trails through the rain forest and we started for the one that went through the middle. We have been walking for some time and to be honest, I was starting to believe that we were not going to be able to see the Okapi today, when all of the sudden a beautiful creature walked by, all alone trudging through the forest not even caring that all eyes were on him. I was awestruck to see it, let it alone so up close that I could reach out and touch its short smooth hair covering its body. I was still in shock as I lay my head down on the small pillow provided for me about what I had seen just hours before.
Physical Adaptations
Day 2: I was the first one to awake and get out to the observing field anxious to learn more about my favorite animal. I took out my journal and pen and started jotting notes as soon as I saw the first Okapi. Though compared to Giraffes, Okapi are rarely seen traveling in herds, with the exception of a baby calf trailing behind. They seem to be very active animals, and are only active during the day, which makes them diurnal. As I was sitting there monitoring the population, it seemed to me that in total I saw about 7 Okapis throughout the entire day. I decided to take a look at there physical advantages, and see how they used them to survive in there environment. The Okapi's 14-18 inch long tongue allows them to reach there food from high places. They also use their tongue to groom their own eyes and nostrils. Okapi have very large ears that perk up, which is one way that alerts them when predators are nearby. The animal has striped hind legs, sometimes relate able to a zebra though there is no connection history between the two animals, that allows them to stay hidden and camouflage from their predators. The hind legs' pattern is very easy to spot for the the other Okapis. which helps lost calves find their parents without trouble. The Okapi has very lustrous (very shiny, and sleek), oily, and velvety skin. The skin allows for the Okapi to stay dry and warmer when it rains, the water just slides right off the animals back. They have scent glands located just above the hooves, this allows them to walk and make trails through the forest that leave behind a scent for others to follow. Most of the male okapis have small skin covered horns, called ossicones, that they get around 2-3 years of age. These horns are small and can be used to but things with. From monitoring these different characteristics and how they help the animal, I can conclude that the Okapi relies on the different traits, and use many more different characteristics.
Physical Adaptations-Visual
Behavioral Adaptations
Day 3: By watching the Okapi day in and day, I wondered how they adapted to their habitat behaviorally. The Okapi has many behavior adaptations that help them survive. When talking about social behavior, they are very solitude animals and keep to themselves for the majority of their time. The Okapi, if seen with others will be seen traveling in groups no more than four, including 2 adults one juvenile, and one child. Although they keep to themselves, they sometimes have social grooming only in there certain captivities. The calf watches the mother and follows along with her daily. They learn almost everything there is to learn about being an animal from their mother. They usually stay clinging to its side for about 2-6 months after birth. Other than when needed the female and male Okapi stay far away from each other, and rarely seen in each others area. When studying the daily pattern of the Okapi I noticed a few new things to jot down in my journal. The Okapi is mostly active during the day (which I stated in one of my previous entries), but they have also been recorded for doing activities during the night as well, making them nocturnal. About 30%-50% of their day is spent resting or laying down. When not resting, the animals mostly feed during the mid morning, and late afternoon. I wanted to take a look about how the animals acted when they happened to be around each other, or what they would consider there "home turfs" to be. I started to look into the Territorial Behavior of an Okapi. To mark a range as their own, a male Okapi will urine on a near by tree or shrub to show ownership of the land. The females on the other hand choose to mark their territory by rubbing their head/neck on the tree or shrub. The sizes of the territories tend to vary depending on the gender of the Okapi. The female territory will usually range from anywhere between 3 km to about 5 km. These homes seem to be more stable and taken care of than the male territories/ranges. The female Okapi is sometimes known to open up their homes to only other females for short periods of times while resting with their young. The male homes seem to me to be at the largest 10 km. The men mostly stay to themselves and roam their area watching the outside. When it comes to play and aggression between the animals there are a few things that I have noticed while being here. Bings the Okapi keep to themselves they usually don't have to many problems with the other Okapis. However, when they do encounter each other it is brief and usually not harmful. The young are more often seen playing together compared to the adults. When the males encounter each others territories, it is for one reason, and one reason only-to fight over the female. When trying to win over a female, they engage in head butting and charging towards each other. They sometimes kick while slapping their bodies towards each other. I saw many different ways that the Okapis interact and don't interact with each other, but I was glad that I had enough time to pinpoint some more amazing behaviors.
Population
Day 4: I awoke the next morning, journal and pen still in hand. I was eager to get out in the field as soon as possible because today we were going to be focusing in on population! I learned many things some of which consists of the following: Okapis travel in groups usually no more than 4 in a herd. They travel with any young that they have, plus commonly another adult. When focusing in on the young, in the past, roughly 50% of the young died withing their first months of survival. With every liter size, there is only one calf in each liter. Only one set of twins has every been recorded. A small reason for deaths of one's young, is sometimes the mother does not know how to treat the baby and is "inspecting" the calf. Without knowing the mother will strike it and kill the baby due to harming the inside. In total, around the world there is estimated to be about 35,000-50,000 animals. The Okapi population in the past decade has ranged from 0.1-1.2 animals per km. Making the average density 0.45 animals per km. In 2009, the Okapi species was classified as a near threatened animal, and just less than a couple years ago, they were officially announced an endangered species by the IUCN. This decrease in population is due to different things, due to the habitat, but the main reasons for my location would be the animal is hunted for its meat and skin, and their natural habitat is being destroyed for human "needs".
Tracking Techniques
(Wild Life Monitoring)
Day 5: While I was sitting in my bunk drinking a fresh cup of coffee, we started to discuss how we thought that we should be monitoring the animal, a way of tracking the Okapi, even when we were inside. We discussed many different ways of researching wildlife monitoring technique. We thought of many for example, we added motion censored cameras, that would detect movement and instantly take a picture and send it back to the lab's computer so we could watch and monitor it. Though the cameras were able to catch pictures of the Okapi we also got to see other animals on the same trail, and some predators following the scent of the Okapi. We also had G.P.S tracking system, as a way to watch where their going and their location. We put a collar around the neck of the desired animal. Connected to the collar is a satellite that corresponds with the other satellites set up all over the rain forest. Withing every 10-15 minutes, the satellite will send us a location of the Okapi. There is also Micro Chipping, this is a small chip that without harming the animal is set underneath the skin of the animal. This way of tracking is used if the Okapi animal is found outside of its natural habitat. They will scan the animal for the chip and find all the information from our department and will then send the Okapi back to us and we will return it to its rightful habitat. Out of all of these different techniques we decided to set up and scatter cameras all around the habitat of the Okapi, but to also monitor them by the G.P.S. tracking collars, to be able to detect the animals' locations, where they go at what times, and where they spend most of their time at. This will help us learn more about the Okapi and what it does to adapt to its habitat by signs of movement and locations.