River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-08-18
CURIOUS LAWS OF OPTICS.
The Zebra's stripes Make the Animal
Almost Invisible at Night.


Almost every writer who treats of the
eolors of animals refers to Cations OBJ
servations that in the bright starlight
of an African night zebras are practi-
cally invisible even at short distance;
but there can be no doubt that their
peculiar striped appearance is also of
great protective value in broad day-
light On a recent zebra hunt near
Cradoclz, in which took part several
members of our party commented on
the difficulty of seeing zebras even at
moderate distances, although there was
nothing TO hide them, the black and
white stripes blending so completely
that the animals assume dull brown
appearance in harmony witt the gener-
al color of the locality "a which they are
found, and in Which, for instance,
Roof rehbok (Pelea carpreolata) is also
well protected on account of
It's peculia- brownish coat. A
member of our party, who,
on another occasion, gave proof that he
is possessed of excellent eyesight, and
who has frequently hunted in similar
localities, saw zebra which was
wounded in one of the front legs at a
distance Of about four hundred Yards.
and. stran ge to say, he mistook it for a
big baboo1. In letter which I re-
ceived from him few days ago he said:
at galloped like baboon from me,
and | could only see that the color was
grayish-brown At about five hundred
yards from me it ran on to little
lSrantz, and mounting the highest rock,
drew its body together just as baboon
does when its four feet are all together
on the summit of little rock" His
remark as to the grayish-brown color of
the animal is the more valuable, as |
believe this gentleman. Mr.. Wrench. A.
K. NJ, of Cradock, is quite UNI
prejudiced. In my own letters to him,
which drew forth these remarks, had
only asked him for the distance at
which he saw the zebra, and did not
ask him how it was that he mistook
black and white zebra for a brown
baboon on a perfectly clear South
African day.
NV own observations also confirm
that the stripes of the zebra are of pro-
tective value. Riding along slope I
suddenly saw four zebras within one
hundred yards above me. They were
galloping down the hill, but stopped
when they caught sight of me As soon
as they stopped | saw their stripes
pretty distinctly. After / had fired
and wounded one of them they started
again gailoping down the hill round me
in a semi-circle at distance of about
seventy yards. All this time they pre-
scented a dull brown appearance, no
stripes being visible, although | had
my attention fixed on this point. They
disappeared beyond ridge, went down
a little valley, and | heard afterward
that they assembled the next slope,
which was not more than fifteen hum
bred yards away from where stood with
a native servant Yet even this lynx
eyed native could not see them going
up the slope They had vanished from
us.
Perhaps II may interest some of your
readers that Zebras are still fairly
plentiful on the rugged hills west of
Cradoclx. A troop of forty-one ami
mails was seen on the very ground over
which we hunted short time before
we arrived. Our party saw eleven in
two days, but believe three were seen
ON two if not on three different occa-
sions. This would reduce their num-
Der to eight if not to five. They are
protected by government and also by
the farmers themselves, but l am afraid
that in spite of that their days are
numbered. They are said to be very
destructive to wire fences, and, as the
inclosing of farms with wire fences is
steadily on the increase in this colony,
many a farmer viii have, though per-
haps reluctantly and in defiance of the
law. to take up his gun and clear
them of his property. There will then
probably be an cutlery by people who
know the difficulties of south African
farming only from books written by
travellers who hurry through south
Africa in a first-class railway carriage;
but those who really know south At
RIGA well will say it is great. great
pity. but il can not be helped unless
governments provides speedily an abode
for these and other animals threatened
with extinction. The first step in the
right direction would perhaps be the
establishment of government zoolog-
zeal garden: but hope others who are
more competent than am will stir the
people of Cape Colony up before it is too
late, so that something more than
mere game laws may be done to pre-
serve them-Nature.