The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-17
HE STRANGE AND
 MYSTERIOUS OKAPI Lieutenant Alexander Tells How He Caught One of
 the Slyest Animals. HABITS OF CREATURE The Natives Think It Is AL ways on the Move and
 Never Lies Down.
HABITS OF CREATURE

Lieutenant Boyd Alexander told the Royal Geographical society in Lon- don recently how he captured an okapi In Africa year ago. The oka- pi Is a variety of antelope and is among the shyest of creatures-so shy that few African natives have ever seen it and no white hunter had heard ofiit up to the time specimen was discovered by Sir Harry Johnston some years ago,
 The okapi taken by Lieutenant Alexander could not be taken alive to Europe, says The Washington Post. It was so timid and shrinking that it could not thrive in the presence of man, and then the difficulties of travel forbade Its transportation. Its skin is now being mounted for the Natural History Museum of London. Lieutenant Alexander said that at Angu, on the Welle-Makua, he first heard of the okapi in that region. The party spent three weeks in the eff | fort to obtain a specimen.
 They found that its haunts are small streams running through swampy ground, where grows a plant some six feet high, whose young shoots, bunch 1 ing at the top are an essential part of the animals food Here it roams about, singly or in pairs, and the na- tives said that sometimes three are found together
 The natives added that they had very seldom seen the animal and this state ment was readily believed for Captain Gosling, though he had certain evil 1 dence on three occasions that he was near the animal, did not catch 2 glimpse of it, for it was perfectly con cealed among the leaves. But three weeks of study revealed it's habits well
 In the night the okapi wanders along in the mud aad water in search of it's food. Captain Gosling found 1t feed | Ing as late as a. m, but after this hour the animal retires to the seclu- sion of the forest, where 1t remains until nightfall Its spoor is found with that of the buffalo and water buck, and sometimes its companions are the elephant the buck and the yellow duil5er
 Owing to It's restless nature and keen hearing, the thick foliage of the plant in which it feeds and the perfect se- clusion of its forest retreats the na- lives say they arc never able to kill the okapi with their weapons; it is all most impossible to track it, and the few specimens they have killed were trapped in pits.
 Jose Lopez, Portuguese collector in the employ of Lieutenant Alexan- der, followed solitary animal for three successive mornings in the neighborhood of a stream. He ob served that on leaving the water the okapi always took the same course be- tween two large trees about one hum dred yards from the stream.
 With the help of the natives he dug a pit four and half feet deep be- tween the trees and carefully conceal 1 ed 1t with branches and leaves, Early the next morning he again approach ed the stream and heard the noise of the okapi as 1t rushed away. An in stant later there was crash, and the little animal was struggling in the pit. The native assistants, lying in wait, at once captured it.
 The natives say they know no other animal so mysterious as the okapi, In their opinion it is always 6n the move and never lies down to sleep,
 Lopez's observations seem to bear this assertion out. On every occasion when he heard 1t feeding it simply paused to take leaf hereand there and then nov ed on again.
 Dr. Ray Lankester is now examining all the skins and skulls of the okapi that have thus far been brought to Europe--about twenty, Nearly every specimen differs greatly from every other specimen. It Is one of the most variable animals that have come under ; Dr. Lankester's observation.