This Polka-Dotted Zebra Baby Is Getting a Lot of Attention Because People Are so Excited To See Her

Zebras have black and white stripes, or at least the majority of them do. Tira, a baby zebra, appears to be a bit unusual.

Tira had a black coat with white polka spots and a few faint stripes around his legs when he was born.

Antony Tira, a guide in Kenya’s Maasai Mara region, first noticed the little foal last Friday. The following day, photographer Frank Liu went out with his camera in search of rhinos, but instead stumbled across Tira.

Liu told The Dodo, “I felt like I was gazing at a foreign species.” “He was stunning and stood out among the zebras,” says the narrator. Throughout the sighting, I couldn’t take my gaze away from him.”

Tira, who is less than two weeks old, is still clinging to his mother, according to Liu.

“There were other herd members about,” Liu recalled, “and they didn’t appear to bother him too much.”

According to Brenda Larison, a zebra specialist and adjunct professor at UCLA, Tira’s distinctive appearance is due to a genetic abnormality.

Larison told The Dodo, “This specific variety is relatively unusual, but they do come up from time to time.” “I’ve seen a lot of images like this throughout the years.”

But, according to Liu, this is the first time a zebra like Tira has been seen in the Maasai Mara, thus Tira is attracting a lot of interest.

“When I arrived, I was just there with another car,” Liu explained. “About a half-hour later, a dozen automobiles rushed in from every direction.” That’s when I realized it was time to move on from Tira.”

Here is the adorable video:

“A potential purpose of zebra herds, maybe aided by their stripes, is predator protection through the dazzle effect,” Larison added. “It makes it difficult for predators to target a specific person. Predators find it simpler to target oddballs since they stick out in a crowd.”