External appearance

For both sexes, the okapi is around 8 feet in length, and females are usually an inch or two taller than the typically 5-foot-tall males.  Although the females are typically taller, the males can grow anywhere to be 441 to 661 pounds, while the females only grow from 55 to 110 pounds, making them significantly smaller.  Okapis all possess a reddish brown coat and white legs with black stripes, resembling the limbs of a zebra.  Okapis' faces are white on either side, seperated by a strip of reddish brown down the middle of the face.  Their eyes are on either side of their narrow face, which look like medium-sized black marbles with long eyelashed pointing downwards.  Their face resembles that of a skinny horse's, with a long snout with horse-like nostrils at the end.  Their ears are large compared to their face, and can be compared to enlarged deer ears that stick straight up.  These are cleaned with their long, blueish-black tongues that can measure 35 centimeters.  The males possess ossicones, which are velvety, horn-like bumps found in between the ears.