WILD ZEBRAS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue X, 5 March 1898, Page 303

WILD ZEBRAS.

The zebra when wild is a ferocious animal, and an unwary hunter is likely to suffer from its teeth and hoofs. The author of ‘ Kloof and Karoo ’ says that a Boer in Cape Colony had once forced a zebra to the brink of a precipice, when the desperate creature turned upon him, attacked him with its teeth, and actually tore one of his feet from the leg. Another author writes of a soldier who mounted a half-domesticated zebra. The creature, after making the most furious attempts to get rid of its rider, plunged over a steep bank into the river, and threw the soldier as it emerged. While the man lay half-stunned upon the ground, the zebra quietly walked up to him and bit off one of his ears. Zebras can never be tamed, unless the process is begun while they are still very young. H. A. Bryden gives an instance of a tragic fate which befell one of them, captured when he was seven or eight years old. He had joined a troop of horses belonging to one of the author’s friends, and finally allowed himself to be driven with them into a kraal, or enclosure. It was then determined to keep him, and if possible to domesticate him. For this purpose he was lassoed and tied to a tree; but so ferocious was he in the presence of man that the greatest precautions had to be observed in approaching him. All possible means were taken to induce him to feed. When captured he was in splendid condition, and his coat shone in the sun. Herbage was brought from the mountain tops where he had been used to graze, and every conceivable food placed before him, but in vain ; he steadily refused to eat. Water he drank greedily, aud would dispose of three bucketsful at a time. At length, after three weeks of vain endeavour to tame the noble creature, during which time he subsisted entirely on water, he died.