Rare spotted zebra spotted at Kenyan wildlife reserve

A tiger might never change his stripes — but it appears that a zebra can.

A rare polka-dot zebra foal has created a stir online after pictures appeared across social media this past week. The equine oddity was spotted at Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, and is said to be a first for the park.

The freckled foal was snapped last month by tour guide and photographer Rahul Sachdev, 41. He was featured in a YouTube clip of the sighting yesterday, where he can be heard saying, “We still have no clue what this baby zebra, slash, whatever, is.”

Fellow fotog and tour guide Anthony Tira, who first happened upon the horse initially echoed his sentiment, saying, “At first I thought it was a zebra that had been captured and painted or marked for purposes of migration. I was confused.”

Upon a closer look, he realized that the newborn had melanism, a rare skin pigment condition characterized by an excess of melanin, which results in abnormally dark coloration. It’s the opposite of albinism, which is caused by low levels of melanin.

Sachdev has since named the foal “Tira” after his Maasai guide’s surname.  

Parmale Lemein, a wildlife specialist at Matira Camp, said that the foal is the first of its kind the Mara. But, unfortunately, the harlequin horse may not have long in this world. Zebras suffering with melanism in all the other African preserves have perished within half a year, Lemein says. This may be due to them being easier to spot by predators.

Photos of Tira were uploaded to the the Matira bush camp’s Facebook page last week, garnering 7,000 shares and almost a thousand comments in less than week.

“The little foal looks so beautiful with the different colors,” writes one commenter.

“Is that the glorious product of an Okapi-Zebra alliance?” jokes another. 

Since posting the images, photographers and tour guides have mobbed the Mara, according to the East African, presumably hoping to get a last glimpse of Tira. 

Sachdev, who also hopes to spot Tira again, adds that it’s a reminder of how “nature accepts all.”
“The ones that are different are as readily accepted as every other one.”