Free Republic

The Colombian government has announced a raft of measures to control its growing population of invasive hippos—descendants of animals introduced to the country by the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. Hippos are native to Africa, but in the 1980s, Escobar smuggled four of the animals into Colombia, keeping them at his luxurious country estate, Hacienda Nápoles, in the municipality of Puerto Triunfo—located east of Medellin—which featured a private zoo. As well as the hippos, the zoo housed numerous exotic creatures, including elephants, ostriches, rhinos, giraffes and zebras. Following the death of Escobar, who was killed by Colombian police during a...

Pickaway County, Ohio deputies killed a zebra on Sunday evening after it mauled a man’s arm, nearly ripping it from his body. Deputies with the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of a zebra attack in Circleville, Ohio just after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. During the 911 call, Ronald Clifton, 72, said he was attacked by a zebra, and requested that the rescue squad be sent right away. The dispatcher sounded shocked and needed to make sure that Clifton said he was attacked by a zebra, and he confirmed it. “I think he tore my arm off…send a chopper,”...

The stunning black-and-white coloration of the zebra's hide stands out in stark contrast with the dry, brown-and-green, treeless grasslands and savannah woodlands of their home territories of East and southern Africa, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. These stripes are unique to each individual. There are three zebra species living today — the plains zebra (Equus quagga), the mountain zebra (E. zebra) and the Grevy's zebra (E. grevyi) — and each of those species has a different striping pattern, too. For some, the darker portions of their hide are black, whereas others have browner coloring, and some have stripes only...

When you deny involvement when there is no crime, you sound suspect. Things have become completely unhinged in the nation’s capital, so why not add to the mayhem? For a few days now, it has been a story of mild interest in the area that five zebras have escaped from a compound where they had been kept. They have reportedly splintered to evade capture, with one trio running off and the remaining duo taking a different escape plan. It’s the kind of nonsensical story that is basically welcomed, what with the world in complete disarray from the border, to the...

Don’t mistake them for escaped convicts in prison suits, but five zebras (yes, you read correctly — zebras) are on the loose in Maryland. Animal services officials in Prince George’s County said Wednesday that the five zebras escaped more than a week ago from a private farm near Bellefield and Duley Station roads in the Upper Marlboro area. Officials said the owner, whom they did not identify, has been trying to catch them by luring them with grain to a temporary corral area but...

The NFL is being urged to fire the crew who officiated the NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints over a blown call in the fourth quarter of the matchup. A petition launched after the Rams defeated the Saints in overtime, 26-23, has asked the league to fire official Bill Vinovich and the rest of the officials who were in charge Sunday afternoon. The officials came under fire after missing a clear pass interference penalty late in the fourth quarter.

Former Rep. Joe Heck received criticism this week after he posted a picture on Instagram of himself posing next to a slain zebra with the caption, “Great start to safari — two off my list: Zebra and Black Wildebeast.” But Heck’s apparent affinity for big-game hunting in South Africa didn’t just upset some in the public. The former Nevada Senate candidate earned a lashing from an organization he lobbied on behalf of this spring: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Wayne-Westland Community Schools has a policy that states that homeschooled students who want to attend a dance such as Homecoming would have to come from an “accredited” homeschool. That would effectively ban homeschoolers from attending dances held by the district since homeschoolers have no reason to be accredited and the state doesn’t require it. Karen Braun, a nationally recognized homeschooling activist in Michigan, said the school district is putting an unfair and unnecessary burden upon homeschoolers. Braun said parents contacted her and said their daughter, a homeschooling student, was invited to the upcoming Homecoming dance within the Wayne-Westland district. The...

Zebras have evolved white and black stripes as camouflage to confuse lions. That's the conventional wisdom, anyway. But, as is so often the case, the conventional wisdom appears to be wrong. New research in Nature Communications concludes that zebras' stripes are actually for preventing bites from nasty insects, such as tabanids (horse flies). For some reason, these flies avoid landing on black and white striped surfaces. For their study, the authors collected stripe pattern data on seven wild equids: plains zebra, Grévy's zebra, mountain zebra, African wild ass, Przewalski's horse, kiang, and Asiatic wild ass. They then overlaid a map...

Is it sub-Saharan African? Russian? Ig-pay atin-lay? Lurking on the funny pages are some hungry crocodiles with bad grammar, poor syntax and one crazy accent. Hullo, Zeeba Neighba . . . The characters of the daily comics have distinct voices inside my head. Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy has a Boston accent. Hagar the Horrible sounds like Ralph Kramden. The Pattersons of For Better or For Worse sound like Canadians, if they lived in Wisconsin. And then, there are the crocodiles. The dimwitted, zebracidal crocs from Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine tie me in linguistic knots. What's that accent? Brooklyn?...