Comments on: Another Giraffid/Okapid Cryptid?

By: Maine Crypto

Maine Crypto — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:16:08 +0000

I think that cave paintings of animals are so interesting. Especially the famed “Unicorn”. Different times had different animals, I am sure.

By: Tatzelwurm

Tatzelwurm — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:03:57 +0000

I would call this a now-extinct population of okapis.

By: RandyS

RandyS — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:22:01 +0000

Not all that long ago (within hundreds of years), many elk were plains animals — even though now most of America’s elk have taken up residence in mountainous areas to avoid man. In light of that, Okapi moving from savannah to deep forests within the space of up to 8,000 years (for whatever reasons) doesn’t seem improbable.

By: Sordes

Sordes — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:12:18 +0000

I know this engraving from an old book, and it was also compared to an okapi. There are also some other similar animals in ancient art, which resembles okapis. It is most probably that this pictures show no okapis, but late-surviving members of Lybitherium or a similar species. This comparably small giraffid was once common in northern Africa and even south-Europe, for example at Samos, Greece, i.e. they were no jungle-dwellers.
There are also hints that the antlered giraffe Sivatherium probably survived in the middle-east for a long time, and were still encountered by the early Sumerians.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:38:30 +0000

4,000 to 8,000 years is a long time. We have no clue how the terrain was back then. I think it is possible for these cave paintings to be from the same era of the other cave paintings we know of that depict the woolly mammoth and other ancient creatures. Although, it could be hiding somewhere like the Congo.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:22:35 +0000

It is thought not to be Okapi, because they are presently a forest animal. Does that prevent it from having dwelt along the riverine forests of the Saharan velt?

If it were a different giraffid, I think the article is indicating that it is extinct, along with the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth, and for similar reasons, the Sahara now being a desert waste.