- Lifespan ±25 years
- Gestation 12 months
- Gregarious and highly social
- Herbivore
- Near Threatened
- A group of zebras is called a dazzle
- Closest relatives are horses and donkeys
- Harems are formed with one dominant stallion, mares and their foals
- Zebra stripes are unique like fingerprints
- Common, widespread and amongst the most abundant of all grazing mammals in Africa
Burchell’s Zebra (Equus quagga burchellii)–Subspecies of Plains Zebra
Plains zebra are a very common sighting across Africa. They are easily identifiable thanks to their distinctive black and white colour scheme. No zebra is the same. Each individual has stripes as unique as your fingerprints.
Zebras are bulk grazers and hindgut fermenters. Bulk grazers can eat grass of low nutrient value because of the large amount they eat. Thus, zebras prepare plains for more selective grazers who rely on short, nutritional grasses.
Hindgut fermenters have simple, single-chambered stomachs and they cannot digest cellulose in the stomach. Therefore, it moves to the large intestine and cecum where microorganisms ferment the cellulose. Cellulose is the main substance in the walls of plant cells.
Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)
Zebras give birth to only one foal. Young female zebras become independent at around one and a half years. While, young male zebras may remain for as long as three years. Once on their own young males often form bachelor herds.
Imprinting is a critical period of time early in an animal’s life where it forms attachments and develops a concept of its own identity. Foals must be able to recognise their mother’s stripes from birth in order to survive.
Zebra stripes act as camouflage to deter predators, such as lions and hyenas. As zebras herd together, the mass of stripes can confuse predators by acting as an optical illusion. This makes it difficult for a predator to single out an individual zebra.
