ZEBRA AND ELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 563, 16 January 1929, Page 13

ZEBRA AND ELAND

ANOMALIES OF ANIMAL WORLD

One of the anomalies of the animal world is the zebra. I-lalf its life is spent in eluding lions, for which it is a meal; evading the giant cat’s deadly rush at the water-hole, it gallops fast and far to security, and browses its way back to the same water supply, unperturbed. Yet another sort of shock is fatal. Not long ago a herd of eight zebras were stampeded toward Nairobi, where six of them fell dead in the streets from shber fright. Tamers of zebras say the animals, reluctant to serve, fall in their harness and die of sheer stubborness; but the singular fact is that this animal, which must so often flee like the wind to save its life, has the smallest heart of any mammal of its size, which is extraordinary considering the exertions to which it is repeatedly called. A similar weakness characterises the king of the antelopes, the eland. It is next to impossible to catch the adults, monsters six feet high, weighing a ton and capable of galloping 30 miles at a terrific pace.

Yet if actually overtaken the eland also suffers a heart attack and may die forthwith. So, as these animals are valuable for work where domestic animals cannot live, the hunters swathe the eland in blankets and inject morphine into its skin, so sending it into a sleep, from which it revives calm and out of danger.