704 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



like the oryx, with which they were associated, although it 

 Is said that the oryx can go without drinking while the 

 zebra cannot, and so is found in much drier regions. The 

 great enemy of the big zebra, as of the common zebra and 

 the oryx, was the lion; and we also found one instance in 

 which a leopard had killed a half-grown kangani and actu- 

 ally dragged part of the carcass into the branches of a thorn- 

 tree. 



Aside from the well-marked difference in color pattern, the 

 Grevy zebra has distinctive differences in body proportions 

 and shape. The head is decidedly enlarged and lengthened, 

 the hoofs are broad, and the ears are greatly expanded and 

 lengthened, exceeding in width the long ears of the African 

 ass. The broad ears are apparently an adaptation which 

 conforms with the brushy nature of their habitat, where 

 acute hearing is of vital importance, and the broad hoofs 

 are also to be attributed to environmental effect, that is, 

 to the sandy and porous nature of much of the desert area 

 in which they dwell. The tail tuft is rather small and con- 

 fined to the extreme tip of the tail. The body coloration is 

 quite distinctive. It consists of numerous, narrow trans- 

 verse stripes, alternate whitish and blackish in color and 

 of equal width, except on the neck, where the dark stripes 

 are broader. An important distinction in the Grevy is 

 the absence of diagonal or longitudinal stripes on the rump 

 and hips, where the stripes are transverse. In the moun- 

 tain zebra of South Africa there is a suggestion of this pat- 

 tern in the narrow gridiron of the rump. In general, the 

 color pattern resembles more closely that of the latter species 

 than the quagga or bonte-quagga type. The stripes of the 

 head are arranged quite as in the other two species. The 

 sexes are quite indistinguishable in coloration, and the newly 

 born young are essentially the same in pattern, though some- 

 what lighter in color. The ground-color, or rather the color 

 of the light stripes, is pale ochraceous-buff, except on the 

 under-parts and inside of the legs, where it is more whitish 

 or cream color. The dark stripes vary in intensity from 



