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How animals became colourful

on Jul 26, 2016

How did all the animals come to be the colours that they are today? There are so many and they are all so well designed. This South African tale will enlighten us as to how these animals came to be the way they are today.

Long long ago, the animals were all the same grey colour. They did not worry too much about their colour but it was hard to manage their families as most of the animals could not really distinguish one from another and so many fights broke out all over the land.

Lion was at ends as to what he could do and he pleaded with the ancestors to help him restore calm to the land. The ancestors answered him and said that at dawn the next day they would send down their colours so as to make it easier to distinguish from one another.

They said to Lion that he must be in charge and they would only send down the colours once the sun was just peeking over the horizon. They chose Lion because he only sees black and white so colours would not help him nor would he be able to be biased in any way.

03Sheldon Hooper Charl BW

He went far and wide and told all the animals to be at his home as soon as the sun rises so that they could all come fetch their colours. The birds all heard this and rejoiced as they were tired of the same old grey colour they had been living with and they too helped spread the word.

That morning, Elephant and Rhino came just before the sun rose as they had no time to waste and had to start feeding as soon as they could and Lion turned them away. They said they would not wait and would rather go on in search of their food. Hence to this day Elephants and Rhinos are grey.

Next came all the antelopes, all at the same time. Now poor Lion was in a dilemma. He could not give them individual colours else they would fight over them. He decided to rather give them the same colour and add some differentiating marks. To the Impala he gave the tide mark and white belly, to the Kudu he gave a few stripes by running his claws through the colour, to the Bushbuck a few spots by poking holes with his claws and to the Nyala he gave spots and many stripes. The antelope left well pleased with their new coats and Lion was so engrossed with helping them he had not noticed he had covered himself in the same colour.

Now while all this was going on, the birds had gone behind Lion and stolen all the rest of the vibrant beautiful colours, this is why they are all so beautifully coloured and also why Lion does not like birds.

The last to come along was Zebra, he had decided that he would eat first and then come once all the rush was over. He arrived as the sun was setting and the only colours that he could now see lying there were black and white and so he took them. He decided that he would sleep on an idea for these two colours and then left them outside his door.

When he woke up in the morning, well before the sun, he had come up with a plan and exited his home to make his new coat. He let out a cry of dismay when he saw the tatters and shreds of his colours lying on the ground, obviously Hyena had found them and thought they looked like food and had ripped them to pieces. The sun had not yet risen now and Zebra wanted to greet the new day with his new coat and set to sewing the pieces back together.

15Sheldon Hooper Hyena BW

Because it was dark, he did not notice that he was sewing the pieces back together in the wrong order and so he put on his new coat before the sun came up and only later noticed how he had alternated the colours.

This was how all the animals became colourful!

  • Blog by Sheldon Hooper (Bush Lodge Ranger)
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