Animals

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Rare spotted zebra found

This elusive and ornery individual has an unusual coat pattern.

Kenya's Masai Mara is one of the best places in the world for wildlife watching. Photographer and safari guide Paul Goldstein caught a truly prized specimen on film, after tracking it down for two years. This elusive animal is a zebra who has an unusual pattern of stripes and spots.

Goldstein had trouble getting within range of the animal to snap his pictures. The spotted zebra is shy, "extremely bad tempered" and aggressive towards other zebras. According to Goldstein, it seems to have been ostracized by the other zebras, presumably because of its non-standard coat pattern.
 
The mystery zebra has an unusually short mane which is solid black. It is much darker than other zebras overall. And it has spots along its back in place of the normal stripes, as well as different patterning on its legs.
 
The stripes of a zebra are like fingerprints, no two animals are alike. And there is some good evidence that zebras use these patterns to identify individuals in their herd. Was this animal banished from the herd because of its odd stripes? Or did it leave the herd on its own, due to its bad temper?

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