PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2020-02-28 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • A Zebra with Dots Instead of Stripes? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • There are a few things that we know for certain about the animal kingdom. For instance, bulls always have two horns (except this three-horned cow), puppy tails are found on the animals' rear (except for this unicorn puppy), fish can only survive in water (except for this snakehead species), and tarantulas absolutely cannot swim (except for the ones that can). OK, so maybe the animal kingdom still has a few surprises up its sleeves. But at least we can take solace in the certainty that zebras will always have stripes, right? Enter a photograph supposedly showing a zebra that was born with polka dots instead of stripes: This is a genuine photograph of a zebra born at the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya in 2019. The zebra was named Tira after Antony Tira, a tour guide and photographer at the reserve who first spotted the rare animal. Tira told the Kenyan outlet Daily Nation, At first I thought it was a zebra that had been captured and painted or marked for purposes of migration. I was confused when I first saw it. Ren Larison, a biologist studying the evolution of zebra stripes at the University of California, Los Angeles, told National Geographic that Tira has a condition called pseudomelanism. This genetic mutation can cause abnormal stripe patterns: National Geographic photographer Frank Liu posted a few additional photographs of this polka-dotted zebra to his Instagram page along with this video: Tira is not the only zebra with this rare condition. In 2014, for instance, a similarly spotted zebra was photographed in Botswana. In September 2019, shortly after the photographs of Tira went viral, Dr. Cliff Bull, the owner of the Craig View Veterinary Clinic, shared a set of images to Facebook which showed him with a different spotted zebra in South Africa: The Craig View Veterinary Clinic wrote: IFL Science writes that zebras with this condition may be at some disadvantages in the wild. For instance, a zebra's stripes are believed to help protect it from horsefly bites. Tira's unique look may also make it easier to spot by predators: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url