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Zebras live in herds on the plains and hilly regions of some parts of Africa. They feed mainly on coarse grass. The young foals, which are borne after a gestation period of about 12 months, are able to run with the herd soon after birth. An adult can run at a constant speed of about 40km/h over a long period of time. Zebras are a favourite prey of lions. Although zebras stay very much on the look out for hungry predators, they do not give much concern to well-fed lions. When a hungry lion spots a young or a weak zebra in a herd, it stalks up as close as possible to it and then gives chase, hoping to catch and down the prey.
Of all hoofed mammals, zebras have the most striking appearance. Their conspicuous black and white striped coats seem to make them sitting targets for hungry lions of African plains.
However, their coloration and stripes do serve a purpose. The sun-scorched savannah often gives off a heat haze, which tends to obscure most shapes on the horizon of the flat plains. Thus during the heat haze the stripes appear to break up the zebra’s body outline, especially when moving in a large herd. Such a form of camouflage is known as ‘disruptive coloration’. Also at night, when the outlines or silhouettes of other animals can be easily made out in the dim moonlight, the zebra is almost invisible because its silhouette or outline is not continuous. It is interesting to note that some ships were painted with black and white stripes during the Second World War, as a form of camouflage.
There are three species of zebras, the Burchell’s, Grevy’s and Mountain Zebras, with many subspecies in the Burchell’s category. Coming from different parts of Africa, each subspecies can be identified by the patterns of their stripes.
The Quagga was a strange looking zebra with a black and white striped head and neck and a plain coloured body. Once plentiful in South Africa, it was wiped out through excessive hunting. The last specimen died in 1883, in Amsterdam Zoo, over 100 years ago.
The sad fate of the Quagga is happening to a great number of other species of animals throughout the world. It’s a shame, isn’t it? Perhaps one day the only place we will be able to see zebras would be in the zoos. Hopefully this will never happen, but still, that is one of the purposes of having zoos – to save and breed endangered wild life.
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