![]() So I very slowly moved out to overtake him. I lost sight of her in the traffic, but the car in front of me didn’t move at all. Then cars on the right were able to get past her. This happened a couple of times and she got really close to me. Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. Every time I picked up my really big telephoto lens to shoot a picture of this zebra blocking the road- she moved forward towards me and almost looked like she was laughing at me. It was almost as if she spotted me and moved closer each time I lifted up my lens - throwing back her head and looking as if she was laughing at me. I was in the second car on the left and picked up my big 200-400mm lens and leaned out of the window to be able to shoot photographs of her. This went on for about 15 minutes, with no tourists’ cars able to pass her. The bond between a mother and her baby is so beautiful and always makes for awesome pictures.Īn amazing incident happened recently when a very pregnant zebra chose to block a road by standing slap bang in the middle of it. Unlike humans baby zebra can stand upright after only 6 minutes of being born. This baby zebra was born in Addo Elephant National Park at most an hour before I get there- as it was still very wobbly. Amazingly, a foal can stand upright within six minutes of being born. I was lucky enough to see and photograph a newborn zebra recently. There are also herds of young single males. Zebras are not territorial but there are fights between males over females, which can get very aggressive and even lead to death. They have a social structure in which one stallion has a harem, with anything between two and six breeding mares and their foals. The collective noun for zebras is “a dazzle”. There are several theories as to why they have these stripes, from serving to ward off insects such as biting flies that carry dangerous diseases, to dazzling and confusing potential predators, to actually acting as a stripy air conditioner! The latter theory has it that the black stripes provide warmth on chilly mornings while the white ones help keep the animals cool in the heat of the day. We may literally be in the dark but everyone that calls South Africa home deserves to be enlightened.Ī dazzle of zebras makes for truly engaging photographyĮlephants are ready positioned to prevent any zebra drinking from the Ngulube waterhole until they decide to let them get closer. ![]() #DAZZLE OF ZEBRAS FREE#If you, like us, have had enough, then help us by contributing whatever you can so that you have free access to the truth of what is happening at all levels of government to make an empowered vote. ![]() We don’t have a paywall because our journalism is free. To our readers: we’re asking for your support. ![]() But what Daily Maverick can do is to ensure that we provide the only tool that enables all South Africans to make themselves heard: information. We can’t all be out repairing potholes and drilling boreholes. Another study from just last year found that besides stripes, other patterns were very effective at preventing capture by predatory entities.Not for the first time, ordinary South Africans are stepping up where the government isn’t… From creating apps to alert others about load shedding, to parking their cars and assisting as point guards to keep traffic moving, our collective ability to take care of each other when the chips are down might be the last thing keeping us going. Lions attacking a herd of zebras or lionfish attacking a school of zebrafish are going to have the same problem zeroing in on a victim.Ī 2011 study by UK zoologists found that “moving targets with stripes were caught significantly less often and missed more often than targets with camouflage patterns.” The high contrast patterns are thought to “[cause errors in speed and direction perception of targets that are in motion,” according to a 2014 paper by another UK zoology team. When they start to moving, however, their patterns make it nearly impossible to focus on an individual target. To the contrary, animals with motion dazzle patterning - zebras are the classic example - are easy to spot from a ways off. ![]() This is why evolution has favored, in the case of animals too big to fit in and constitutionally opposed to standing still, motion dazzle markings. The problem with both of these approaches is that they require a willingness to play the waiting game. There are two primary methods of camouflage in animals: crypsis, which involves mimicking patterns to blend in with specific environments, and mimesis, which involves looking like something scary or otherwise unappetizing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |