THE ZEBRA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 725, 28 December 1933, Page 2

THE ZEBRA

DOES HIS COLOURATION SERVE AS A ' DISCUISE. NOT QUITE EFFICIENT. At last a long-expected challenge to theories of protective colouration (or at least to some applications of such theory) has arrived. Mr. Eric Pockley writes to a Sydney paper complaining that protective colouration has been exaggerated, and denying that the zehra enjoys it except on occasions. He quotes a fecent statement made in Sydney to the effect that some of the mo'st striking colour patterns are the most coneealing, and, as an example of this, that a man walked right into a herd of about 40 zebra before he was aware of their presence. Mr. Pockley comments : — "(Of course, there is no' doubt about the fact of protective colouration, and I think most of the examples he gives are true enough, but like the fact of mimicry in the songs of birds, I think it is worked to death, and that often it is claimed when it does ' not exist. Surely many animals survive in spite of, or rather than on account of, their colouration, by the possession of other assets, such as speed of food, acuteness of sight and h'earing, etc. For example, the little Thompson's gazelle, which has a white rump and the more nervous it is about something' strange the more it absolutely heliographs its presence by rapidly swishing its dark tail from side to side, causiiig a. flicker which immediately catches your vision at long distances. What the Eye Sees. "During four months' expedition by foot in Kenya, ze|bra were in sight practically every day, sometimes in thousands. They are about the most startling coloured . and easily seen of all the animals on the African plains-, and will arrest your attention at tremendous distances. I think there must be very few animals that are less protected by their colour. There is certainly one peculiarity of their colouration, and that is, that with the sun at one particular angle, they occasionally look entirely black, and at another angle entirely white, and on one oceasion with the naked eye I saw what looked like a row of glistening white tents at least five miles away, and on focusing my glasses on them was amazed to see that they were zebra. The only occasions on which I found them hard to see were when they were in small timber with white stems and branches and a bright sun overhead, when the barS of light and sha.de made their debection difficult. "I ara inclined to think that the man who walked into a herd of them must have 'met them in some such' locality; but this is a comparatively rare place to fihd them, as they spend the greater part of their time On th'e open plains. It is not our individual opinions tha.t matter much, but as most of these facts of natural history are sooner or later used to substantiate or eonfound some theory on th'e riddle of life, or other problems, it

is as well to have the facts as right as possible, and for my part I am doubtful about survival in the case j of the zebra, and in the case of many j other pnimals and Turds which are often claimed as being associated with protective colouration."