TWO RACES OF ZEBRAS 



colour of the leucoryx, as compared with that of 

 the gemsbuck or the beisa antelope, has not been 

 brought about in order to serve as a protection 

 against enemies, but is directly due to the influence 

 of its desert environment, and constant exposure to 

 strong sunlight on treeless plains. Again, from 

 the point of view of a carnivorous animal hunting 

 for food by daylight and by sight, no two countries 

 could be more alike than the open karoos of the 

 Cape Colony and the plains in the neighbourhood 

 of Lakes Nakuru and Elmenteita in British East 

 Africa, where the grass is always kept very short 

 by the large herds of game, as well as by the cattle, 

 sheep, and goats belonging to the Masai, which 

 pasture there. Before the advent of Europeans, 

 the carnivorous animals inhabiting the Cape Colony 

 were exactly the same as those found to-day in 

 East Africa, viz. lions, leopards, chetahs, wild 

 dogs, and hyaenas. In both districts lions were 

 once numerous, and in both zebras formed the 

 principal food of these carnivora. But whereas 

 Equus granti, the form of zebra found on the plains 

 near Lake Nakuru, is the most brilliantly coloured 

 representative of the genus to which it belongs, 

 with jet black stripes on a pure white ground, the 

 now extinct form of zebra — Equus quagga — which 

 once abounded on the plains of the Cape Colony, 

 was of a dull grey brown in ground colour, with 

 darker brown stripes on the head, neck, and fore- 

 part of the body alone. Now, these two races of 

 zebras, both living on bare, open plains, could not 

 both have been coloured in the best possible way 

 to escape being seen by the lions which constantly 

 preyed upon them. If, as has been contended, the 

 juxtaposition of the black and white stripes in 

 Grant's zebras renders these animals not only 

 inconspicuous, but almost invisible under strong 

 sunlight on an open plain, and is, in fact, the 



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