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Zebras - Africa's striped wild horses
Zebras, Africa's striped wild horses, inhabit grasslands in the eastern and southern parts of the continent. Besides the Plains zebras (Equus quagga) there are two other species: The Mountain zebras (Equus zebra) and the Grevy's zebras (Equus grevyi). Although the species look very similar, they are not more closely related to each other than to the other horse species like Wild ass and Przewalski's horse. If one thinks of Zebras the first thing coming to mind is their stripy patterns. Their has been a lot of dispute about the reasons for the stripes. Probably there are several of them: Since there are individual differences in the patterns, it has been argued that they play a role in individual recognition. Moreover it is an efficient camouflage on the wide plains; predators have difficulties in seeing Zebras from a distance because of their patterns. But the stripes are not just useful against predators; also the disease-causing Tsetse flies can't make them out as easily as animals without patterns.
Zebras are mostly seen in large herds, consisting of up to 10.000 animals. If one has a closer look, it becomes obvious, that these herds are not an anonymous conglomeration. They can be divided into smaller groups. The members of those families know each other individually. Such a family consists of an adult male, several females and their young. There's a significant hierarchy between the members of one family. The male is the dominant animal, but the direction where to go is chosen by the highest ranking female most of the time. A lot of social behaviours are shown between the members of a group, such as nibbling each other's fur or welcoming behaviours like sniffing at each other or coming into contact with the heads. Among males there are often fights for females. A typical fight behaviour is biting each other's legs.
Zebras feed on grass and herbs. During times of neediness they also take leaves and bark. Although they are not ruminants, Zebras carry microorganisms in their intestines, which help them to break down their nutrition.
Zebras are attractive to many predators, especially lions and hyenas, although their hoofs are sometimes used as dangerous weapons.
Plains zebras are not endangered at the moment, except some subspecies with declining numbers. But the Grevy's zebra is highly endangered and the Mountain zebra is even threatened by extinction.
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This article was originally published at <a href="http://magazine.naturspot.de" target="_top">magazine.naturspot.de</a>. <a href="http://magazine.naturspot.de/text/zebra.html" target="_top">Link to the original article</a>
The animal photos are NOT part of this permission. |
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