Dear Guests /

As most of you will know by now we are relocating and/or selling hundreds of game species from our ranch in SA which has been sold to the governement for land distrubution claims.

I have alot of interesting game capture picture which I will post in a day or so BUT ... To cut a long story short, we captured some Zebra and came across which may possibly be a very rare (White Zebra) specie !!

WE are contacting someone in Kenya where the (only known small herds) of them exist for their opinion.

I was wondering (with all our esteemed) and knowledgible AR guests around the tracks, what are your thoughts or (opinions on this animal in picture) could it possibly be one of the White Zebra rare specie or just a small freak of nature, with some missing gene !!!



Cheers, Peter

This below is a White Zebra in Kenya

I believe that it just has less black pigment in its skin, than normal.

looks like the xerox needs some toner

Peter,
I believe that it is a melanistic variant of the normal Zebra and is missing the black pigment. I have seen wild turkeys that have a similar look. I do not know if it is recessive and requires another with the marker gene to express its unique color. It is a very striking Zebra.
Is it male or female?
Robert

That is really strange looking.

Certainly appears to be a color morph. I've seen it in moose in New Hampshire. My guess would be recessive gene and I would love to see what happens if/when it breeds and the resulting follow-on generation(s). Particularly if one could find the same characteristics in the opposite sex.

Balla Balla's post is of a very rare animal indeed. It reminded me of the above zebra we photographed in Tarangire Park in '03. Even more amazing to me is that this very same zebra was again photographed in our hunting area adjacent to Tarangire in '05 and appears on our promo for that year.

Mark

Peter, looks like one of those Surfer Dudes
Just kidding. I agree with the melanistic or color phases that nature sometimes produces. I have seen this in birds and animals. Sometimes it can produce a completely white animal/bird but they are not true albino's, lacking the pink eyes (iris), nose and lips. I hope your move is a succussful one without any hitches. Good hunting, LDK

Guests ....

Some more pictures from the Game Capture operation to give those whom have not seen this before some idea of what it involves

Cheers, Peter
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quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:

It looks like the stripes between the black and white have been reversed. Looks like the stripe on this animal is white with the filling being black.

Peter, thanks for the pics. That brings back memories. I went along on a game capture in 2001 near Ellisras. The helicopter pilot wanted me to ride with him, but after seeing that little copter, I declined and watched from the top of the transport truck.

Neat pictures! The rhino picture reminds me of the movie Hatari. Which leads me to ask, who is the better help Dallas or Brandy?

Balla Balla, out of curiosity do you know how many animals die from stress?

quote:

Originally posted by Boghossian:
Balla Balla, out of curiosity do you know how many animals die from stress?

Boghossion

WE have now completed the FIRST BATCH of game animal (capture sales/relocation) and out of the 300 game animals captured in this BATCH (no deaths at all) .... WE used Pride of Africa game capture services team, so it is partly to their credit I guess that so far, it is a clean slate, also our game animals are all in good shape on the ranch, so that could also contribute to the success.

Just out of GENERAL INTEREST to our guests ///

Game Farming and Game Animal Sales (particularily in South Africa) are MUCH (more commercially viable) than actual hunting safaris.

Hunting Safaris are a very tough competitive business to be in, and a fair number of safari companies tend to fail. Many Safari companies do it more as an adventure/lifestyle operation than to make them rich

In conclusion ....

IMHO I truly believe that (within the next decade or two) we will see Hunting Safaris as we know them (in open non-fenced areas) to be extremely or very rare. The trend with all what is gone on politically is for wildlife/game to be (enclosed within proteced game ranches) and/or protected Wildlife National Parks.

I dont wish to sound negative, but I honestly cant see how we can keep these vast wonderful open areas productive with the ongoing poaching, LAND ISSUES, human encroachemnt and similar that are confronting us in Africa. We can all see clealy the trend for Governments and Private Investors to take more control of Africa's Wildife ....

Cheers, Peter

Peter, I'm reading the famous book of Charles Darwin, "the origin of the species". If you go at the end of the chapter 6 you will find some very interesting comments about the stripes in the genus Euquus.

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:

It looks like the stripes between the black and white have been reversed. Looks like the stripe on this animal is white with the filling being black.

This animal looks like a Grevy's/burchel's zebra cross. The stripes are very thin, except on the honches, and the head is more mule like, much more like the grevy's!

The one in Peter's catch, looks to be an albino! If you look closely at the eye on him, it is amber, not brown like a regular zebra. I would say if you could look dirrectly into the eye, I think you would see a pink puple!

In any event, both are beautiful animals!

Last year in Etosha we saw a zebra that appeared 95+% black, with white spots lined up like stripes. It was very striking and stood out in the herd.

Mark,
I have seen and photographed the same zebra in 2005 in Tarangire as well. Seems to have a long life