Zebra stuffed animals are a fun plush toy for any child to have as part of a growing stuffed animal collection. Like horses, zebras are part of the Equidae family, thus children have an easy time relating to these unusual looking animals with the horse-like bodies. The next time your child requests a plush toy, consider zebra stuffed animals over something more traditional (like a teddy bear) just for the sheer amusement of it.
Even though they are members of the Equidae family (like horses), zebras are nothing like equines except for their horse-like physiques, though unlike horses, zebras have stripes, short manes, and tufted tails. No one really knows for sure why zebras are striped; it's thought that the stripes actually act as a camouflage to confuse predators like lions and hyenas. While the stripes are visible during the daytime, at night, due to the patterns the stripes make, it's thought that predators become slightly mystified as to what the true distance of the animal actually is. Some scientists believe that in addition to camouflage, their stripes help them withstand very intense heat from the sun. There is no doubt that part of the fun of zebra stuffed animals, are their unusual black and white stripes; there is no other animal on earth that looks anything like them.
There are three types of zebra, two of which live in East Africa. The Burchell (common or plains zebra) is the species that is the most widespread in the east. The other is called Grevy's zebra (mostly found in northern Kenya) which was named after Jules Grevy, a President of France in the 1880s who received a zebra as a gift. The third species, called Equus, is a mountain zebra and can be found in southern and southwestern Africa. Any child that receives zebra stuffed animals or already has them as part of their plush collection, will likely never know the difference between the three species. As long as it looks like a zebra, 'talks' like a zebra, and 'walks' like a zebra, that's all they will ever need to know.
Some other interesting, but perhaps lesser known facts about zebras are that while they all may look identical, their stripes are actually like the fingerprint on a human -each one is distinct. By comparing patterns, stripe width, color, and scars, individual zebras can actually be identified. Grevy's zebra stripes are more narrow and more numerous than those of the plains zebra. In all of the zebra species, the stripes form a triangular pattern on their forequarters. Grevy zebras also have a similar stripe pattern on their hindquarters while the other species have a slanted or horizontal pattern.
For some additional fun with your child the next time they find themselves with nothing to do, take out their zebra stuffed animals and have them count the number of stripes on the animal and then identify the various patterns they see.
Angeline Hope is a collector of jumbo stuffed animals. You can view a selection of jumbo stuffed animals including zebra stuffed animals at MyBigPlush.
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