To find out, Larison and colleagues ran genetic analyses on 140 individual plains zebras-including seven animals with unusual coat patterns-from nine locations in Africa, including Nambia’s Etosha National Park and South Africa’s Kruger National Park. ( Read more about Larison’s research in her own words.) “The observation led me to wonder: Is part of the reason that I’m seeing so many is because this population is inbred?” says Larison, who studies the evolution of zebra stripes at the University of California, Los Angeles. A lack of gene flow can lead to inbreeding and ultimately infertility, disease, and other genetic defects. Migrating infuses populations with new genes, making it key to a species’ long-term survival. Habitat fragmentation caused by fences, roads, and human development have squeezed zebra populations, like the one in Lake Mburu, into small pockets of land, preventing some of the animals from migrating between herds. Though plains zebras are the least threatened of the three species, their numbers have dropped by 25 percent since 2002, with around 500,000 animals ranging from Ethiopia to South Africa.
So biologist Brenda Larison found it striking that an unusually high number-an estimated 5 percent-of plains zebra living near Uganda’s Lake Mburo were abnormally striped. Such aberrations-often caused by genetic mutations that alter the production of melanin, a natural pigment-are generally rare among mammals. In 2019 in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, scientists recorded a polka-dotted foal, with white spots covering its dark-brown body. But in some cases, these African equines sport unusual color patterns, such as large, black splotches or golden coats with light-colored stripes. © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc.Anyone can tell you that zebras have distinctive black and white stripes. “The ones that are different are as readily accepted as every other one.” Caters Sachdev, who also hopes to spot Tira again, adds that it’s a reminder of how “nature accepts all.” Since posting the images, photographers and tour guides have mobbed the Mara, according to the East African, presumably hoping to get a last glimpse of Tira. “Is that the glorious product of an Okapi-Zebra alliance?” jokes another. “The little foal looks so beautiful with the different colors,” writes one commenter. Photos of Tira were uploaded to the the Matira bush camp’s Facebook page last week, garnering 7,000 shares and almost a thousand comments in less than week.
This may be due to them being easier to spot by predators. Zebras suffering with melanism in all the other African preserves have perished within half a year, Lemein says. But, unfortunately, the harlequin horse may not have long in this world. Parmale Lemein, a wildlife specialist at Matira Camp, said that the foal is the first of its kind the Mara. Sachdev has since named the foal “Tira” after his Maasai guide’s surname. It’s the opposite of albinism, which is caused by low levels of melanin.
SPOTTED ZEBRA COLONIE NY SKIN
Upon a closer look, he realized that the newborn had melanism, a rare skin pigment condition characterized by an excess of melanin, which results in abnormally dark coloration. He was featured in a YouTube clip of the sighting yesterday, where he can be heard saying, “We still have no clue what this baby zebra, slash, whatever, is.”įellow fotog and tour guide Anthony Tira, who first happened upon the horse initially echoed his sentiment, saying, “At first I thought it was a zebra that had been captured and painted or marked for purposes of migration. The freckled foal was snapped last month by tour guide and photographer Rahul Sachdev, 41. The equine oddity was spotted at Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, and is said to be a first for the park. Puppy rescued after man hurls pet out car window near North Carolina animal shelterĪ tiger might never change his stripes - but it appears that a zebra can.Ī rare polka-dot zebra foal has created a stir online after pictures appeared across social media this past week. I've taken my dogs paragliding hundreds of times - people say I'm 'selfish' but I love itīear's shocking visit to Disney World forces multiple ride closuresĪnti-brothel protest and more: Letters to the Editor - Sept.
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