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We bring you the finest handmade stuffed plush animals in the World
Big Furry Friends is your source for Lifesize, Life Size, Life-like and Realistic Large Plush Stuffed Animals
Not just great gifts for children and adults, these beautiful pieces make great corporate gifts, baby gifts and display pieces for homes, office and businesses, theatrical displays, commercial and movie props......
All our animals are hand-made from of the finest plush stuffed animal artisans in the world. They are life-like, some lifesize and all realistic with careful attention to detail. They make an impressive gift whether corporate or personal, but also make a statement as a corporate mascot or display at your company's headquarters. Our plush animals are used for staging homes for sale, creating themed weddings, conventions and events where these furry friends add a real 'wow' factor. Our life-like plush stuffed animals have also been used in museums, as well as theatrical props in movies, commercials and on live stage productions all over the world. What is contained here is a sampling of what our artisans have to offer...
Do you need a true-to life size T-Rex? A giant Wooly Mammoth or other animal for your Museum?
If you can imagine it, we can create it for you!
Lifesize, Life-like and Large Plush Stuffed Animals - Grevy's Zebra
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Zebra, Medium
Handmade
Item # 35RM15
Size: 13 L x 5 W x 14 H
Price: $ 69
Zebra, Large
Handmade
Item # 48RM15
Size: 26 L x 7 W x 24 H
Price: $ 184
This is a hand-crafted collection of realistic plush, sometimes lifesize animals. The "coat" of each animal is meticulously cut by hand, never stamped out by machine. Gentle paws, swishing tails, and especially soulful eyes and faces are lovingly detailed to give each character a life-like look.
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Zebras are African equids best known for their distinctive white and black stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals and can be seen in small harems to large herds. In addition to their stripes, zebras have erect, mohawk-like manes. Unlike their closest relatives, horses and asses, zebras have never been truly domesticated.
There are three species of zebra: the plains zebra, Grévy's zebra and the mountain zebra. The plains zebra and the mountain zebra belong to the subgenus Hippotigris, but Grevy's zebra is the sole species of subgenus Dolichohippus. The latter resembles an ass, while the former two are more horse-like. Nevertheless, DNA and molecular data show that zebras do indeed have monophyletic origins. All three belong to the genus Equus, along with other living equids. In certain regions of Kenya, plains zebras and Grevy's zebras coexist.
The unique stripes and behaviors of zebras make these among the animals most familiar to people. They can be found in a variety of habitats, such as grasslands, savannas, woodlands, thorny scrublands, mountains and coastal hills. However, various anthropogenic factors have had a severe impact on zebra populations, in particular hunting for skins and habitat destruction. Grevy's zebra and the mountain zebra are endangered. While plains zebras are much more plentiful, one subspecies, the quagga, went extinct in the late nineteenth century.
The name "zebra" comes from the Old Portuguese word zevra which means "wild ass".
Zebras were the second lineage to diverge from the earliest proto-horses, after the asses, around 4 million years ago. Grevy's zebra is believed to have been the first zebra species to emerge. The ancestors of the Equus horses are believed to have been striped, and zebras must have retained the stripes of their ancestors due to their advantage for social animals in tropical environments. Extensive stripes would be of little use to equids that live in low densities in deserts (like asses and some horses) or ones that live in colder climates with shaggy coats and annual shading (like some horses). Fossils of an ancient equid were discovered in the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Hagerman, Idaho. It was named the Hagerman horse with a scientific name of Equus simplicidens. It is believed to have been similar to the Grevy's zebra. The animals had stocky zebra-like bodies and short, narrow, donkey-like skulls. Grevy's zebra also has a donkey-like skull. The Hagerman horse is also called the American zebra or Hagerman zebra.
It was previously believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes, since some zebras have white underbellies. Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal's background color is dark and the white stripes and bellies are additions.
The stripes are typically vertical on the head, neck, forequarters, and main body, with horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the animal. The "zebra crossing" is named after the zebra's black and white stripes.
It has been suggested that the stripes serve as visual cues and identification. With each striping pattern unique to each individual, zebras can recognize one another by their stripes.
Others believe that the stripes act as a camouflage mechanism. This is accomplished in several ways. First, the vertical striping helps the zebra hide in grass. While seeming absurd at first glance, considering that grass is neither white nor black, it is supposed to be effective against the zebra's main predator, the lion, which is color blind. Theoretically, a zebra standing still in tall grass may not be noticed at all by a lion. Additionally, since zebras are herd animals, the stripes may help to confuse predators - a number of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large animal, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out any single zebra to attack. A herd of zebras scattering to avoid a predator will also represent to that predator a confused mass of vertical stripes travelling in multiple directions, making it difficult for the predator to track an individual visually as it separates from its herdmates, although biologists have never observed lions appearing confused by zebra stripes.
A more recent theory, supported by experiment, posits that the disruptive colouration is also an effective means of confusing the visual system of the blood-sucking tsetse fly. Alternative theories include that the stripes coincide with fat patterning beneath the skin, serving as a thermoregulatory mechanism for the zebra, and that wounds sustained disrupt the striping pattern to clearly indicate the fitness of the animal to potential mates.
Like most members of the horse family, zebras are highly social. Their social structure, however, depends on the species. Mountain zebras and plains zebras live in groups, known as 'harems', consisting of one stallion with up to six mares and their foals. Bachelor males either live alone or with groups of other bachelors until they are old enough to challenge a breeding stallion. When attacked by packs of hyenas or wild dogs, a zebra group will huddle together with the foals in the middle while the stallion tries to ward them off.
Unlike the other zebra species, Grevy's zebras do not have permanent social bonds. A group of these zebras rarely stays together for more than a few months. The foals stay with their mothers, while adult males live alone. Like the other two zebra species, bachelor male zebras will organize in groups.
Like horses, zebras sleep standing up, and only sleep when neighbors are around to warn them of predators.
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