Before the news inundates us, a glimpse of some of God’s stuff…
This baby okapi was born at the Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, in 2011. Isn’t she beautiful? And remember, we’re looking at an animal that Western scientists didn’t know existed at the start of the 20th century. In 1899, the okapi would have been a subject for cryptozoology. In 1901, it became part of just plain zoology.
I have a lot of sympathy for cryptozoologists. As soon as they discover something, it isn’t crypto anymore.
What a beautiful and unusual animal, and such a touching scene 🙂
When I see some of the intricacies in nature, I think I’m glimpsing – ever so tiny a glimpse – into the creativity of Our Father.
That is quite a critter. Very interesting appearance and very appealing. I’d love to find one of those in the back yard, someday.
I used to have one in my toy box. I wonder if it got shifted to my brother’s toy box. I keep forgetting to ask him.
Yet another animal I never knew existed! Have you heard of the saola aka Asian unicorn? It’s found in the forests of Vietnam, and is extremely rare. It was first discovered in 1992, and photographed in 1999.
Sounds like something out of a Lee Duigon novel. 🙂
When I looked it up, I found I already knew the saola by another name, the Vu Quang Ox.
This animal was the property of cryptozoology until it was actually discovered; then it became just plain zoology.
I’ve always preferred the crypto zoo over the regular zoo. 🙂
When I was a kid, there was a great hobby shop and they had zoo animals of very high quality. There was an amazing variety of species, usually in adult and juvenile. As I recall, they were from Europe, Germany perhaps.
That little shop had some wonderful things. Tonka Trucks, made of genuine steel, a great selection of model cars, some very small, perhaps HO scale, WW II vehicles. They had Pyrexware and all sorts of equipment and supplies for student chemists. (Product liability concerns have ruined that educational hobby.) They had fine models of boats which were remote controlled. Nothing in that store was second class, but the zoo animals were exceptional.
I think I know exactly the high-quality “zoo animal” toys you have in mind. They had stiffening wires inside them. Along with the okapi, we had a wild board, giant anteater, and a moose.
There were also miniature versions of these, made the same way and of the same high quality. I still have my rhino and anteater.
Yep, I think that is the same thing. Maybe from France.
Possibly West Germany.