Zebras are on the loose near the nation’s capital. Residents in Prince George’s County, Maryland have reported seeing zebras in their neighborhoods. This quote from the news is priceless:
One family saw at least three zebras wandering around their yard in the town of Upper Marlboro, Maryland
news.yahoo.com
I remember - with no small stupefaction - seeing around four or five zebras nonchalantly grazing on the grass on the roundabout just outside Nairobi's international airport the first time I first arrived there - my flight had arrived sometime after 1 a.m. - so it was quiet, and my taxi left the airport and turned at the roundabout - on a nice modern asphalted road, - towards the city, passing advertising hoardings, large buildings (car dealers, offices, banks, insurance places, excellent lighting - it could have been driving out of an airport anywhere in Europe, but for the zebras) and this small herd of zebras, grazing away, undisturbed, supremely unconcerned by the traffic (what little of it there was) and the urban setting in which they found themselves.
My jaw dropped, and I stared - after all, this was an airport roundabout, not a zoo - and the driver shrugged. "It's night time," he said. "This is normal, at night."
Ever after, whenever I flew in to Nairobi at night, (during the day, - for Nairobi's traffic was legendarily heavy, and noisy - the zebras - wisely, would take themselves off somewhere else) - I would look out for the zebras at the airport roundabout; and most of the time - not quite always - there they were, munching away, at ease in their environment.
