![]() ![]() ![]() In fact, Caro's research indicates that zebra stripes could have evolved to aid in repelling disease-carrying flies. This does not necessarily mean that stripes are effective at deterring predators, he adds. "Some predators choose members of herds that stand out because it may signal that they are not so good at fleeing," he explained to us via email. Unusual colouration is likely to put the animals at greater risk of falling victim to predators, according to University of California biologist Dr Tim Caro. In 2014, a black zebra was photographed in Botswana's Okavango Delta, while a ' blonde' individual showed up in the Serengeti earlier this year. Zebras with unusual colour patterns are rare, but not unheard of. Under their striped coats, zebras have uniformly black skin as a result of melanocytes being evenly distributed across their bodies. According to Barsh, pseudomelanistic zebras like Tira have all of their melanocytes in place, but the melanin produced does not result in stripes, for unexplained reasons. In humans, melanin acts as a natural sunscreen, darkening the skin to help protect it from harmful UV rays."There are a variety of mutations that can disturb the process of melanin synthesis, and in all of those disorders, the melanocytes are believed to be normally distributed, but the melanin they make is abnormal,” Greg Barsh, a geneticist at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, explained to National Geographic. Skin and hair colour in mammals comes from a pigment protein called melanin which is produced by specialised cells called melanocytes. While Tira may look like he's been crossed with an okapi, he actually owes his unique colouration to a rare genetic condition called pseudomelanism. While it is unknown what happened to the little zebra foal, we can only hope that it beat the odds and found a way to survive.Word of the spotty zebra – given the name "Tira" by the guide who first found him – quickly got around and photographers and tourists in the area rushed to catch a glimpse of the unusual animal. “At first glance he looked like a different species altogether," photographer Frank Liu told National Geographic. Photo: YouTube/HassaneinĪt the time that the foal was photographed, it was only a week old, meaning that it probably only had a few weeks left to live. It has been observed that blacker zebras born in the wild will normally only live about six weeks after their birth. Photo: YouTube/HassaneinĪ zebra’s digestion is supposedly less efficient than other animals, and so by having a good body cooling system, they’re able to digest their food and thus they’re able to remain healthy.īecause the blacker zebra foal doesn’t have any of these cooling stripes, it is a sad reality that many blacker zebras don’t live long in the wild. Additionally, zebra’s stripes help them to better digest their food. In fact, their stripes serve as a means of keeping them cool while they’re running across the African landscape. While that might not seem like a big deal, a zebra’s stripes are actually quite important to its well-being. Rather than having light-colored pigmentation, the zebra’s fur only had dark colors. It had been born with a case of melanism, which is the opposite disorder of albinism. ![]() In fact, the rare little foal turned out to be what is known as a “blacker zebra.” Photo: YouTube/HassaneinĪs shared by Abdelrahman Hassanein, the blacker zebra foal – at the time of the photography – was no more than a week old. ![]() In fact, at first he didn’t even believe that he was looking at a baby zebra but rather some other species of animal that had ended up getting lost from its family. Tira was quite surprised by what he was witnessing, never thinking that such a zebra could exist. Tira was filming video and taking pictures of the wildlife at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, when he spotted the rare animal. The little zebra was actually a foal, but it didn’t have stripes at all on its body. One professional photographer, Antony Tira, managed to capture a very rare sight: a none-striped zebra! However, sometimes nature throws in a curveball. We all know that zebras are black and white and striped. ![]()
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