Brehm's Life of animals - a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools (1895) (20225130360)

Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim00breh (find matches)
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; PechuLoesche, Eduard, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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414 THE ODD-TOED AXMALS. The Range The Dziggetai or Koulan is a child of the Kou- of the steppes. Though it prefer- lan- ably affects the environs of lakes and rivers, it does not shun the arid, waterless, desert-like regions; neither does it avoid mountains, provided that' the open country continues to prevail, and the region is not overgrown with forests. It is not the rarefied air of the heights in the mountain, the glaring heat of the sun in summer, nor the icy cold of the low plains in winter; not the piercing snow- storms of the heights, nor the hot cloud of sand whirling in the valley below, which bounds the do- main of this hardy animal of the steppes. It is solely Man, who determines, or at least dominantly influ- ences, its range of territory and manner of existence. When the wide country has been in the least Traits and Habits A fondness for the society of its kind of the Kou- or even of other species of animals, lan- is one of the main traits of the char- acter of this wild Horse, as well as of the solid- hoofed animals in general. As the Zebra, Quagga and Dauw join the herds of African Antelopes and Ostriches, one also sees the Dziggetai in the moun- tains in company with various kinds of wild Sheep, the Antelope of Tibet and the Grunting Ox in the lowlands, or grazing together with the Saiga or others of the numerous family of Antelopes. It is also on friendly terms with stray Horses. A person who has seen Koulans in their native country and at full liberty, will not hesitate to de- clare them highly-endowed animals. The eye of the observer, fascinated by their movements, regards the
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THE KOULAN. The largest and one of the wildest and swiftest o depicted in its hign home in the table-lands of Tibet. It has more the aspec Ass-like. It looks so much like the Mule.that it has been given a scientific i wild Asses of Asia is this animal, which is here appropriately Horse tha n an Ass, although the s hape of the body and tail are meaning ' half-Ass ." (Eqults Iu> niottus.) invaded by nomad tribes, or where the wandering shepherd regularly goes back and forth at long in- tervals with his herds, the Koulan is driven away. Where, in the midst of abundant pasturages, there are strips of country so poor, so desolate and so barren that even that precursor of civilized Man, the shep- herd, never enters but sedulously shuns them: there one is sure to find this wild Horse led thither by its unquenchable thirst for unbounded freedom, enjoy- ing itself amid the general desolation. It still inhabits several districts of Akmolinsk in tolerably large numbers, a strip of steppes between the Altai and the Saisan Lake, and is found in all congenial places to the south and east of that region, in southern Siberia and Turkestan, though in less numbers than in the wide, deserted plains of Mon- golia and northwestern China, or on the mountains of Tibet. incomparable agility of the swift creatures with de- lighted amazement. " It is the most wonderful spec- tacle," says Gay, "to see with what rapidity they climb the mountains, with what skill they pick their way down without stumbling. Koulans which we pursued, scoured over the hills and dales of the steppes, as if they were amusing themselves with the exercise of their indefatigable strength." An animal of this kind easily escapes the pursuit of the larger beasts of prey. In the steppes of west- ern Asia there is none which possesses the temerity to attack Koulans; even Wolves in that country do not dare attack healthy wild Horses, as these latter make excellent use of their vigorous hoofs in ward- ing off their enemies. Weak and diseased Koulans, which stray away from the herd, are probably the only ones attacked by Wolves. In the southern and southeastern portion of its range the Tiger may oc-