Why the zebra has stripes

Where did the zebra get his stripes? Or rather, why?

This has been studied over the years, with various theories proposed: to confuse predators, provide camouflage, regulate body temperature, aid in social interaction and to repel insects, according to National Geographic. The two that have had the best results in studies over the years are repelling insects and confusing predators.

A scientific team headed by Tim Caro, a wildlife biologist at the University of California-Davis, mapped the range of zebras as well as horses and asses, noting striping on their bodies. This was compared to the five hypotheses about the purpose of zebra stripes using variables such as predator ranges, wooded areas, temperatures and distribution of biting flies. The best overlap was with biting flies.

Source: Here

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Greenpeace Says Goodbye to Simba

Greenpeace along with Netherland based animation studio Studio Smack gave us a horrifying glimpse of what life on Earth is without all the adorable memeable cats, loyal friendly dogs and noisy beautiful birds. ( I could do without the cockroaches though, just saying...)

Dutch company Studio Smack gave the world, a world without animals in their "Hacking Disney" video where they deliberately wiped out the fauna in Disney's epic musical adventure The Lion King.

One by one, the animals ranging from zebras, elephants, giraffes, including our favorite characters Zazu and Mufasa slowly dissappear before our eyes.

Greenpeace and Studio Smack did an excellent job in showing us how important wildlife conservation truly is and the need for humanity to step up our game in conserving our treasured fauna.

With animals getting extinct and are in danger of extinction each year, this bone chilling picture of a barren African savannah might not be so far at all!

Hopefully, this would encourage us to take good care of our Earth and we wouldn't say goodbye to Simba soon.

Rejoice is the social media manager for Mapping Kindness (www.mappingkindness.com) and the Mapping Kindness Blog (www.blog.mappingkindness.com) 

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Zebras

Zebras, as cousins to the horse, remain to be one of the most popular animals with children, defined by the Zebra’s distinct parallel streaks of white and black.

With their popularity, the question of domesticating zebras as how horses have been successfully domesticated have come up over the years, with answers yielding towards saying “No. They’re not easy to domesticate.”

 

In the 2005 feature Racing Stripes, the idea of a “domesticated” zebra was pivotal to the movie’s overall plot, with its story delving into the life of an abandoned zebra which grew up with race horses. Though the movie did tell of how a zebra managed to be “trained” into becoming a race horse, history notes that a number of actual attempts in domesticating zebras have failed.

As animals, zebras are known for their unpredictability, liable to even attack people at one point in time.

This unpredictable composure of the zebra has made it unfit as a prime candidate for domestication, with many coming to terms with that fact the hard way. However, zebra hybrids are known to exist, though nothing truly spectacular about them have been known to come up, save perhaps the stripes hybrid zebras have on their bodies.

A Zorse, combination zebra and horse, and Zonkey, combination zebra and donkey, have been known to be around for some time, with the history of zebra hybrids dating back to a century into the past.

As unique and cute zebras are, many children have found themselves discouraged by the notion that they are not like horses and donkeys, with instances of being able to ride on the backs of zebras being rare occasions which don’t always happen.

Zebras Video

 

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