Spotted zebra photo

From Wildlife Extra:

What animal has black and white spots?

January 2013. When award winning photographer Paul Goldstein first saw this animal on Kenya‘s Masai Mara Reserve, he didn’t have his camera with him, and no one quite believed him about the zebra with spots. Paul runs a camp on the Masai Mara, so has plenty of opportunity to keep an eye out for unusual sightings.

Two years later, Paul saw the animal again, and this time he had his camera with him. Now all zebras have a different pattern (Who has checked that? How do they know?), but this one is more different than most.

It appears his unusual coat does a great deal more than set him aside for photographers, he doesn’t seem to mix with other zebras either. Zebras almost always travel as part of a herd, but this poor chap always seems to be alone.

Paul runs photographic safaris based at Kicheche Mara, and will be presenting at Destinations Travel Show in London on February 1st – 3rd.

Comment on this, at Wildlife Extra:

Probably a dark specimen of the maneless zebra

Interesting animal. I suggest, it is a dark specimen of the so-called maneless zebra (Equus quagga borensis), which usually occurs further north in Kenya and Uganda up to Sudan in the North. Gambela National Park holds a population for example. These zebras have usually more pronounced black parts, especially on the legs although this one is extremely dark even compared to other maneless zebras. In addition, these zebras also lack manes as that one depicted here. Perhaps it migrated from the north into Masai Mara, which is usually home to the Grant´s zebra (E. q. granti).

Posted by: Westlöwe | 31 Jan 2013 16:37:03

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