FORTUNE'S FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL: #44
FORTUNE'S FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL: #44 Zebras are colored with dark stripes on a light background.
All the foregoing herpestines have the nose short, with its under surface flat, bald, and with a median longitudinal groove. The remaining forms have the nose more or less produced, with its under side convex, and a space between the nostrils and the upper lip covered with closely pressed hairs, and without any median groove. The South African _Rhynchogale muelleri_, a reddish animal with five toes to each foot and 4/4 (abnormally 5/5) premolars, alone represents the first genus. The cusimanses (_Crossarchus_), which differ by having only 3/3 premolars, and thus a total of 36 teeth, include, on the other hand, several species. The muzzle is elongated, the claws on the fore-feet are long and curved, the first front toe is very short; the under surface of the metatarsus naked; and the tail shorter than the body, tapering. Fur harsh. Includes _C. obscurus_, the cusimanse, a small burrowing animal from West Africa, of uniform dark-brown colour, _C. fasciatus, C. zebra, C. gambianus_ and others. Lastly, we have _Suricata_, a more distinct genus than any of the above. The dental formula is as in the last, but the teeth of the molar series are remarkably short in the antero-posterior direction, corresponding with the shortness of the skull generally. Orbits complete behind. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 15, L. 6, S. 3, Ca. 20. Though the head is short and broad, the nose is pointed and rather produced and movable, while the ears are very short. Body shorter and limbs longer than in _Herpestes_. Toes 4-4. Claws on fore-feet very long and narrow, arched, pointed and subequal. Hind-feet with shorter claws, soles hairy. Tail rather shorter than the body. One species only is known, the meerkat or suricate, _S. tetradactyla_, a small grey-brown animal, with dark transverse stripes on the hinder part of the back, from South Africa. Entry: A
Next comes the closely allied species with small pointed ears, of which the true quagga (_E. quagga_) of South Africa is now extinct. This animal has the dark stripes limited to the head, neck and shoulders, upon a brown ground. In the typical form, now also extinct, of the bonte-quagga, dauw, or Burchell's zebra (_E. burchelli_), the ground-colour is white, and the stripes cover the body and upper part of the limbs. This was the commonest species in the great plains of South Africa, where it roamed in large herds, often in company with the quagga and numerous antelopes. The species ranges from the Orange river to the confines of Abyssinia, but its more northern representatives show a gradual increase in the striping of the legs, culminating in the north-east African _E. burchelli granti_, in which the stripes extend to the hoofs. The markings, too, are alternately black and white, in place of brown and creamy, with intermediate "shadow stripes," as in the southern races. Entry: SPECIES
"Of the nine zebra-horse hybrids I have bred," he says, "only two in their make and disposition take decidedly after the wild parent. As explained fully below, all the hybrids differ profoundly in the plan of their markings from the zebra, while in their ground colour they take after their respective dams or the ancestors of their dams far more than after the zebra--the hybrid out of the yellow and white Iceland pony, e.g. instead of being light in colour, as I anticipated, is for the most part of a dark dun colour, with but indistinct stripes. The hoofs, mane and tail of the hybrids are at the most intermediate, but this is perhaps partly owing to reversion towards the ancestors of these respective dams. In their disposition and habits they all undoubtedly agree more with the wild sire." Entry: 6
_Use of Colour for Concealment._--_Cryptic colouring_ is by far the commonest use of colour in the struggle for existence. It is employed for the purpose of attack (_aggressive resemblance_ or _anticryptic colouring_) as well as of defence (_protective resemblance_ or _procryptic colouring_). The fact that the same method, concealment, may be used both for attack and defence has been well explained by T. Belt (_The Naturalist in Nicaragua_, London, 1888), who suggests as an illustration the rapidity of movement which is also made use of by both pursuer and pursued, which is similarly raised to a maximum in both by the gradual dying out of the slowest through a series of generations. Cryptic colouring is commonly associated with other aids in the struggle for life. Thus well-concealed mammals and birds, when discovered, will generally endeavour to escape by speed, and will often attempt to defend themselves actively. On the other hand, small animals which have no means of active defence, such as large numbers of insects, frequently depend upon concealment alone. Protective resemblance is far commoner among animals than aggressive resemblance, in correspondence with the fact that predaceous forms are as a rule much larger and much less numerous than their prey. In the case of insectivorous Vertebrata and their prey such differences exist in an exaggerated form. Cryptic colouring, whether used for defence or attack, may be either _general_ or _special_. In _general resemblance_ the animal, in consequence of its colouring, produces the same effect as its environment, but the conditions do not require any special adaptation of shape and outline. General resemblance is especially common among the animals inhabiting some uniformly coloured expanse of the earth's surface, such as an ocean or a desert. In the former, animals of all shapes are frequently protected by their transparent blue colour; on the latter, equally diverse forms are defended by their sandy appearance. The effect of a uniform appearance may be produced by a combination of tints in startling contrast. Thus the black and white stripes of the zebra blend together at a little distance, and "their proportion is such as exactly to match the pale tint which arid ground possesses when seen by moonlight" (F. Galton, _South Africa_, London, 1889). _Special resemblance_ is far commoner than general, and is the form which is usually met with on the diversified surface of the earth, on the shores, and in shallow water, as well as on the floating masses of Algae on the surface of the ocean, such as the Sargasso Sea. In these environments the cryptic colouring of animals is usually aided by special modifications of shape, and by the instinct which leads them to assume particular attitudes. Complete stillness and the assumption of a certain attitude play an essential part in general resemblance on land; but in special resemblance the attitude is often highly specialized, and perhaps more important than any other element in the complex method by which concealment is effected. In special resemblance the combination of colouring, shape and attitude is such as to produce a more or less exact resemblance to some one of the objects in the environment, such as a leaf or twig, a patch of lichen, or flake of bark. In all cases the resemblance is to some object which is of no interest to the enemy or prey respectively. The animal is not hidden from view by becoming indistinguishable from its background, as in the cases of general resemblance, but it is mistaken for some well-known object. Entry: 1
Among the striped species, or zebras and quaggas of Africa, the large Grévy's zebra (_Equus grevyi_) of Somaliland and Abyssinia stands apart from the rest by the number and narrowness of its stripes, which have an altogether peculiar arrangement on the hind-quarters, the small size of the callosities on the fore-legs, the mane extending on to the withers and enormous rounded ears, thickly haired internally. The large size of the ears and the narrow stripes are in some degree at any rate adaptations to a life on scrub-clad plains. Entry: SPECIES
_Fauna._--The fauna of Liberia is sufficiently peculiar, at any rate as regards vertebrates, to make it very nearly identical with a "district" or sub-province of the West African province, though in this case the Liberian "district" would not include the northern-most portions of the country and would overlap on the east and west into Sierra Leone and the French Ivory Coast. It is probable that the Liberian chimpanzee may offer one or more distinct varieties; there is an interesting local development of the Diana monkey, sometimes called the bay-thighed monkey (_Cercopithecus diana ignita_) on account of its brilliant orange-red thighs. One or more species of bats are peculiar to the country--_Vespertilio stampflii_, and perhaps _Roussettus büttikoferi_; two species of shrew (_Crocidura_), one dormouse (_Graphiurus nagtglasii_); the pygmy hippopotamus (_H. liberiensis_)--differing from the common hippopotamus by its much smaller size and by the reduction of the incisor teeth to a single pair in either jaw, or occasionally to the odd number of three; and two remarkable _Cephalophus_ antelopes peculiar to this region so far as is known--these are the white-shouldered duiker, _Cephalophus jentinki_, and the zebra antelope, _C. doriae_, a creature the size of a small goat, of a bright bay brown, with broad black zebra-like stripes. Amongst other interesting mammals are four species of the long-haired _Colobus_ monkeys (black, black and white, greenish-grey and reddish-brown); the Potto lemur, fruit bats of large size with monstrous heads (_Hypsignathus monstrosus_); the brush-tailed African porcupine; several very brightly coloured squirrels; the scaly-tailed flying _Anomalurus_; the common porcupine; the leopard, serval, golden cat (_Felis celidogaster_) in two varieties, the copper-coloured and the grey, possibly the same animal at different ages; the striped and spotted hyenas (beyond the forest region); two large otters; the tree hyrax, elephant and manati; the red bush pig (_Potamochoerus porcus_); the West African chevrotain (_Dorcatherium_); the Senegalese buffalo; Bongo antelope (_Boocercus_); large yellow-backed duiker (_Cephalophus sylvicultrix_), black duiker, West African hartebeest (beyond the forest), pygmy antelope (_Neotragus_); and three species of _Manis_ or pangolin (_M. gigantea_, _M. longicaudata_ and _M. tricuspis_). Entry: LIBERIA