Real Zebra Hide Dress Sporran on Ebay

[ForresterModern]

Trivia question answer:

Although long thought to be a basically white animal with black/brown stripes, close biological review of the zebra shows their underlying skin color to be black/brown, with the white stripes only in the hair. Evidence for this is seen by looking at the non-hair covered portions of a zebra, namely the skin around the eyes and muzzle which are distinctly black/brown (with the exception of the albino zebra pictured on Wipikipedia that has extremely pale but still slightly pigmented stripes as well as similarly lightly pigmented hairless skin around the eyes and muzzle). Biologists, although purporting several theories, have no real evidence to explain why zebras have such pronounced stripes to begin with, another of nature's unexplained but entertaining and fascinating phenomena.

Mr. Science now returns you to your regularly scheduled broadcasting.

[Tartan Tess]

I like Mr. Brit's sporran better with the dark cantle with the zebra skin. It brings out the teeth on his hat band!

[longhuntr74]

I've been watching this seller's items and they seem to be of inferior quality. Look closely at the back of the sporran. It's that same high shine leatherboard that cheap imported sporrans use. His cantles are all comparable to those on cheap sealskin sporrans and the fellow doesn't know that full mask sporrans usually don't include fur on the back side of the sporran.

This sporran, in particular, looks cobbled together and made-up. I suspect that the sheath is a direct result of the maker seeing the photo of Lamar in his zebra sporran and not realizing that the knife sheath is not attached to the sporran. On top of that, he doesn't even have a clue as how sporran tassles are attached- the chain goes through a hole in the front of the sporran and then is attached to the split ring. On top of that it looks like he ran out of the decorative chain he was using and substituted a piece of leather lace. Geez...

My guess is that it's some guy who fancies himself a sporran maker and has access to a fur supplier, so he's going wild.

I'd recommend you steer clear. I bet that upon inspection this is a sporran that has been "frankensteined" with a different front covering. Same for the older Sheffield sgian dubh and reworked sheath.

I'd echo everything that David said here...I've seen this seller's other auctions. He appears to be an amateur taxidermist/leather worker who has neither skill nor training. This sporran is likely a cheapo-import hunting sporran with some zebra skin glued to the front of it. I'd also say that he got the sheath idea from that very picture of Lamar...too much coincidence there!

[warrior]

Trivia question answer:

Although long thought to be a basically white animal with black/brown stripes, close biological review of the zebra shows their underlying skin color to be black/brown, with the white stripes only in the hair. Evidence for this is seen by looking at the non-hair covered portions of a zebra, namely the skin around the eyes and muzzle which are distinctly black/brown (with the exception of the albino zebra pictured on Wipikipedia that has extremely pale but still slightly pigmented stripes as well as similarly lightly pigmented hairless skin around the eyes and muzzle). Biologists, although purporting several theories, have no real evidence to explain why zebras have such pronounced stripes to begin with, another of nature's unexplained but entertaining and fascinating phenomena.

Mr. Science now returns you to your regularly scheduled broadcasting.

The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the stripes act as a form of disruptive camouflage similar to the dazzle pattern used on naval ships of the United Kingdom during WWII.
Not camouflage as is usually thought that allows it wearer to blend in or go unnoticed but instead the type of camouflage that allows its wearer to blend in in plain sight. Remember the zebra is an animal of the open plains and is just one of many prey species that live in large herds. Now do a search for photos of herds of zebra, especially herds on the move, now try to pick out an individual animal. Consider trying this as a predator on the chase like a lion, leopard or cheetah moving at full speed in pursuit and having to make split second decisions and course corrections.
Basically, the disruptive pattern makes target selection more difficult for predators.

[Bugbear]

South-African Folk-Tales: The Zebra Stallion

http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/saft/sft36.htm

[artificer]

The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the stripes act as a form of disruptive camouflage similar to the dazzle pattern used on naval ships of the United Kingdom during WWII.
Not camouflage as is usually thought that allows it wearer to blend in or go unnoticed but instead the type of camouflage that allows its wearer to blend in in plain sight. Remember the zebra is an animal of the open plains and is just one of many prey species that live in large herds. Now do a search for photos of herds of zebra, especially herds on the move, now try to pick out an individual animal. Consider trying this as a predator on the chase like a lion, leopard or cheetah moving at full speed in pursuit and having to make split second decisions and course corrections.
Basically, the disruptive pattern makes target selection more difficult for predators.

Well said.

Here's quite an interesting paper from the magazine Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on the study of contrasting colour camouflage (pdf format)

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.o....full.pdf+html

And a nice succinct summary of the various types of camo with short historic notes from Cambridge HERE.

[Ryan Ross]

Upon viewing the offending sporran a second time, I agree with David, also... looks like he's gone and hacked off Brito Sensei. And poorly.