The natural world is a breath-taking and simultaneously terrifying place. It is capable of creating wonders such as Niagara Falls to dangers such as volcanic eruptions. The 4 March is World Wildlife day; therefore it makes sense for us to delve into some of the fascinating creatures that call our planet home.
The first animal ,that for me personally is magnificent, is the Okapi. The Okapi is endemic to the Northeast Congo. It is a part of the Giraffdae family . The Okapi was unknown to science until 1901 when Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston , a British explorer , sent the first bits of its hide to the British museum . It was however Sir Henry Morton Stanley who made the first report of the animal as early as 1890. The Okapi, though related to the giraffe, is different from it in several ways. It firstly has a shorter neck and shorter legs. Its coat is sleek and a deep brown that’s almost purple. The sides of its face are pale white . The forehead and ears have a dullish red cast. From the buttocks to the thighs there are white and black horizontal stripes. The okapi is a very shy animal and lives in solitary only coming together for the purpose of mating.”The Wambutti people, said Stanley the explorer, knew it as the Atti. Actually, it’s not entirely clear that this was the word they had for the animal, and this might instead have been their word for ‘ass’ or ‘horse-type animal’. At some point, the alleged existence of this ‘Atti’ became known to explorer, author and colonial administrator Harry Johnston (made Sir Harry in 1896), though whether he learnt this from a meeting with Stanley or from reading Stanley’s book isn’t clear, since he claimed both sets of events at different times. Herodotus , the famed historian, may have also referred to it in his books as he mentioned a “horned ass” that inhabited the forests of Libya.
The second animal that is truly unique is the Komodo Dragon. The Komodo dragon is endemic to the Indonesian island of (you guessed it) Komodo. They are the largest lizard on the planet. They grow up to ten feet long and weigh up to 135 kilograms. They hunt using their notorious, venomous hunting strikes. It used to be believed that these lizards had various strains of bacteria in their saliva that killed prey. Some scientists believe that the Komodo secretes a venom similar to that of venomous snakes. Recent discoveries have also told us that the Komodo may have not even originated from Komodo island , but rather Australia as shown by the discovery of fossils dating back to four million years ago.These giant lizards are ruthless carnivores! Being such aggressive meat-eaters; they will eat any meat, from large deer to even humans and water buffalo. They certainly have the strength and venom to do so. An interesting fact is that sometimes they eat each other – the larger of the lizards of course will eat the younger and smaller. In addition to eating any meat they can get their tail on, these giant lizards can eat nearly their entire body weight in just one sitting.
The last animal that we will be talking about is the Arctic Wolf. The Arctic Wolf or Canis Lupus Arctos is found in the arctic tundra of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands, Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland. They spend their entire lives north of the northern treeline. These wolves are able to survive freezing temperatures of minus 30 degrees celsius. One thing that gives them the advantage in this climate is the fact that they can go up to 5 months without eating. The most fascinating thing for me about this animal is how they communicate with one another. Their vocalisations include howling, growling, whimpering, and barking. These sounds can be a combination of growl-bark or howl-bark.Wolves frequently use facial expressions and ear and tail positioning to communicate for example : a tail tucked behind the hind legs and ears flattened backward communicates submission.
These animals that call home the same planet as us are true wonders of nature, but will unfortunately be lost unless we take climate change seriously. If we do not, the Okapi will lose the forests it calls home and the Arctic Wolf, its tundra
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