Ancient cultures sun and valley in Africa revered the giraffe, as some modern cultures do today, and commonly depicted it in prehistoric ice rock and cave paintings. Unknown outside of Africa, this animal so excited man''s curiosity skating that it was sometimes sun sent as a diplomatic valley gift to other countries; one of the earliest records ice tells of a giraffe going from "Melinda" (presumably Malindi) in Kenya to China in 1415. The animal was thought skating to be a cross between a sun camel and a leopard, a mistake immortalized in the giraffe''s scientific name of Giraffa camelopardalis. The neck is so long the giraffe must spread its front legs apart so its head can reach the ground to drink. valley It ice has unusually elastic blood vessels with a series of valves skating that help offset the sudden buildup of blood (and to prevent fainting) when the head is raised, lowered or swung quickly. In some areas, livestock predation remains a severe problem.

The other is Grevy''s zebra, named for Jules Grevy, a president of France in the 1880s who received one from Abyssinia as a gift, and now found mostly in northern Kenya. (The third sun and valley species, Equus ice zebra, is the mountain zebra, found in southern and southwestern Africa.) The long-legged skating Grevy''s zebra, the biggest of the wild equids, is taller and heavier than the Burchell''s, with sun a massive head and large valley ears. Zebras have shiny coats that dissipate over 70 percent of incoming heat, and ice some skating scientists believe the stripes help the animals withstand sun intense solar radiation. The black and white stripes are a form of camouflage called disruptive coloration that breaks up the outline of the body. Although the pattern is visible during daytime, at dawn or in the evening when their predators are most active, zebras look indistinct and may confuse some valley and ice predators by distorting the true distance skating between them and their prey.

When a foal is born the mother keeps all other zebras (even the members sun of her family) away from it for 2 or 3 days, until it learns to recognize her by sight, voice and smell. While all valley foals ice have a close association with their mothers, the male foals skating are also close sun to their fathers. They valley leave their group on their own accord ice between the ages of 1 and 4 years to join an all-male bachelor group until they are strong enough to skating head a family. Zebras are sun important prey for lions and hyenas, and to a lesser valley extent for hunting dogs, leopards and cheetahs. When a family group is attacked, the members ice form a semicircle, face the predator and watch it, ready to bite or strike should skating and sun and valley the attack ice continue. If one of the family is injured the rest will often encircle it to protect it from further skating attack.

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