The African Unicorn

 Walt: Write down what we have learned about the article.

Today I learned about the African Unicorn. The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is native to the Ituri rain forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 10,000 to 20,000 okapis living there. Though the okapi looks like some kind of horse, it’s a relative of the giraffe—the only one. Like the giraffe, the okapi has two ossicones—bony outgrowths covered in the skin—on its head. It also has a long, dark, prehensile tongue similar to a giraffe’s. Prehensility is the ability of an appendage or an organ to grasp or hold. The okapi stretches its 46-centimeter (18-inch) tongue to clean its ears and eyelids and to strip buds and leaves from trees. I also learned that After the birth, mother and calf were left alone to bond. Any disturbance could have frightened Kweli, prompting her to reject the calf. A newborn okapi can stand within 20 minutes and nurse within an hour. Four to eight weeks go by, however, before it defecates. In the wild, delayed defecation is a natural defense, limiting the amount of scent that could attract predators to a calf while its mother forages (looks for food). An okapi mother leaves her calf undefended for hours, returning only for short periods to nurse it. Mother and calf spend relatively little time together. 

    

I think I stuck some interesting facts in my writing above. Maybe I could try making the sentence smaller.