LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Zebra (Mammal)
built 816 days ago
Zebra mussels are fingernail sized mollusks with brownish or yellowish shells marked in wavy bands. Female zebra mussels can lay between 30,000 and 1,000,000 eggs each year. These eggs develop into free swimming larvae that quickly begin to develop shells. Within three weeks they attach themselves to a surface and begin to feed. The mussels feed on plankton in the water. Zebra mussels main predators are diving ducks and freshwater drum fish.
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Zebra mussels filter organic and inorganic particles between 7 and 400 microns, competing with native planktivores for food. The net result is a sedimentation of previously suspended organic matter in the form of feces and pseudofeces, shifting energy and nutrient balances from the pelagic to the benthic zone. Increases in water clarity favor increased photosynthesis by rooted aquatic macrophytes, and negatively effect fish species that prefer slightly turbid conditions, such as walleye. Removal of green algae gives cyanobacteria a competitive advantage, as zebra mussels will stop filtering in the presence of cyanobacteria. Zebra mussels settle in high numbers on native mussels (Unionidaceae), causing suffocation, starvation, and energetic stress leading to death. Loss of native mussel populations has increased dramatically where zebra mussels are present, particularly in the Great Lakes and Hudson and Mississippi rivers.
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The Lions — (debut: 5/31/07) Two lions who moved in next-door to Zebra when an elderly couple moved away. This puts Zebra in an awkward situation -- he has predators on both sides of his house (the Fraternity of Crocodiles is on the other). However, Max and Zach have stated that they will not prey upon Zebra because only female lions hunt. Their wives have been shown attempting to eat Zebra, but only hunt at night. Max and Zach seem to honestly like Zebra, talking to him and warning him of how his actions will draw their wives' attention towards him, only to disheartened when Zebra refuses to avoid things that make him look weak (like yogurt and the Oprah Book Club). The introduction of Max and Zach was significant because up until that point, while crocodiles and hyenas had both been shown, lions had remained unseen characters.
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Zebra mussels have only recently been found in Kentucky waterways. A Division of Water biologist who examined the mussels confirmed their identification. The mussels he looked at he thought were a little more than one year old and they were bigger than the same kind of mussels living in the Great Lakes.
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Hyenas are the third type of predator that plague Zebra's herd. They have only appeared in the strip twice: once, a series in which Zebra was an online advice columnist for other zebras; the second appearance was a single Sunday strip in September 2007 as new neighbors of Zebra.
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The Zebra had kicked so hard that he lost the balance. Staggering back into the Baboon's fire, he sent the burning sticks flying up in the air. These left black scorch marks all over his fine white coat.
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Zebra (Mammal)