SYNTHETIC ZEBRAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1940, Page 6

SYNTHETIC ZEBRAS

NEW FOREST TRAFFIC PROBLEM. PONIES DID NOT KNOW THEIR MOTHERS. The ponies of the New Forest which, although they all have owners, run wild over the great area of uncultivated land, have always been a problem to the motorist. The animals have in many cases tended to stray on to the road. and. at times, would lie down on the highway. Even in normal conditions the danger to and from cars ! travelling at night was considerable. ! The coming of the black-out made I matters infinitely worse, and in the : first month or two of the war there wore scores of victims. So alarmed did the pony owners become that they tried a novel experiment. The ponies were caught and white stripes were painted on them in order that they should stand out more plainly in the darkness (says an English exchange). Up to a point the plan was a success. but one thing was entirely overlooked. Il was found that the foals no longer were recognised by their mothers when they resembled zebras more than anything else. Other measures have had to bo taken to deal with the situation.

' Curiously, some ponies develop the i habit of wandering on to the roads ■ much more than others, and these i "lane-creepers" as they are locally ; called, have been rounded up to the I extent of several hundreds. Some of those have been sold mostly at figures which would have been thought impossible before the emergency imposed severe restrictions on the use of petrol. Those which it has been decided to retain have been securely enclosed in j an area of Held and rough pasture in I the Beaulieu, district of the New Forl est and in the end it is hoped that all ; ponies left running wild in the forest I will bo only those known to keep to | their own grazing grounds, and disI inclined to frequent the road.