WILD ASSES & ZEBRAS 
I N Africa the Equidce are represented by two races of wild asses and 
several species of zebras. The former are found in the deserts of 
Nubia, Somaliland and Gallaland, from the neighbourhood of the 
Nile to the Red Sea, whilst south of Abyssinia zebras of one species 
or another were once found throughout all the countries on the eastern 
side of Africa, as well as everywhere in the south -central and southern 
portions of the continent and also all over west and south-west Africa to 
the south of the equatorial forest regions, except in absolutely waterless 
areas. But if anyone will take a map of the whole of Africa, it will at once 
be seen that the range of all species representing the equidae has always 
been confined to less than half the area of the whole continent. The valley 
of the Nile has ever formed a barrier which no species of either wild ass 
or zebra has been able to pass, and there can be no doubt that the ancestors 
of these animals made their way into Africa, not from Europe, but from 
Southern Asia. Speaking on this subject, the well-known American 
palaeontologist, Dr Lull, has stated that: “ In the Siwalik beds of India is 
found a one -toed Hipparion, and it has been suggested that the modern 
zebras may be the living descendants of this genus. It is certainly not in 
the line to the common horse, Equus caballus, which makes its appearance, 
however, in the Upper Pliocene beds both of Eurasia and North America 
— the climax of a long evolutionary progression.” 
Be that as it may, to-day zebras are only found in Africa. Grevy’s zebra, 
whose ancestors may have been the last to leave Asia, is very distinct 
from all other species, or races, of the genus, and is only found in certain 
districts of Abyssinia and Somaliland and from thence southwards past 
Lake Rudolph as far as Neumann’s camp on the Gwas N’yiro river in 
British East Africa; whilst almost at the extreme south of the continent 
in certain of the mountain ranges of the Cape Colony is found the animal 
known as the true or mountain zebra. The districts inhabited by these 
two very distinct species are separated by some 2,500 miles of country, 
throughout the whole of which a third species of zebra — known as 
Burchell’s — was once to be found. 
Burchell’s zebra has been divided into many local races or sub-species 
which grade gradually from the brilliantly coloured Grant’s zebra of 
British East Africa to the now extinct quagga of the Cape Colony. This 
latter animal is, I am aware, usually considered to be a distinct species, 
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