Introduced/invasive species can cause havoc, of course. But it seems like these zebras have kept in balance pretty well. It might be that they're filling a niche left by an insufficient number of wild horses and antelope.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Wild zebras couldn't drag me away
It's a story I've only heard about in the past couple of years, and it's delightfully nutty. William Randolph Hearst imported a herd of zebras for his private zoo, because that's the kind of millionaire tycoon he was. Eventually he groaned "Rosebud!" for the last time and most of his animals went to legitimate zoos. But the zebras stayed. Eventually they got out and went wild. Now Southern California has wild zebras as part of its ecosystem, at least in a small stretch.
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A herd of wild zebras on the Pacific coast is news to me. What a wonderful thing it would be to see them and maybe some elephant seals as well.
There are wild hippos in Colombia - the original four animals were owned by Pablo Escobar and kept in his private zoo. When he died in 1993 nobody felt like making the effort to catch them and now they number in the hundreds. Apparently, they are considered invasive but still nobody knows how to get rid of them
Another group of non-native animals are the wallabies that live not far from Paris. I guess it was another escape from a zoo or maybe a circus (though I haven't heard of them as a circus act).
North America was once home to many species during the Ice Age, it appears the zebras as well as the wild mustangs and burros are refilling those once abandoned niches. Maybe the antelope will return too.
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