African Zebra Information

While zebras are easy to recognize due to their black and white stripes, each animal has a completely unique pattern. There are three species of zebra living in Africa and two of them are rare. Zebras are closely related to horses but have never been successfully domesticated by man. Their stripes are believed to have evolved to confuse predators since they break up the animal's outline and make it harder for predators to pick out an individual zebra to chase.

  1. Description

    • Zebras resemble squat horses with black or very dark brown stripes on a white background. The stripes run from the back vertically to the belly but are horizontal on the legs. The underbelly is white and the mane is short and sticks straight up in the air. Zebras have long, black tails

    Plains Zebra

    • The plains zebra (Equus quagga) is the most common of the zebras and numbers in the millions. There are seven recognized subspecies although one, the quagga (E. quagga quagga), is extinct. Plains zebras are short and squat with a dark muzzle. They can be eight feet long and 4.6 feet tall and weigh 700 pounds, with males being slightly larger than females. Plains zebras are found from Sudan and Ethiopia in the north all the way south to Mozambique and South Africa. They are most common in East Africa, where huge herds follow the annual rainfall patterns across the savannas of Kenya and Tanzania.

    Mountain Zebra

    • The mountain zebra (Equus zebra) is restricted to South Africa, Namibia and Angola and is divided into two subspecies. It is found in rocky and mountainous country. In the Cape mountain subspecies, females are larger than males. The species rarely grows taller than four feet at the shoulder, with a body length of about seven feet and a weight between 528 to 818 pounds. Mountain zebras do not form herds and are found in small family groups led by an adult stallion.

    Grevy's Zebra

    • Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi) from Kenya and Ethiopia is the largest species of zebra and is the only species of the subgenus Dolichohippus. The plains and mountain zebra belong to the subgenus Hippotigris. Adults can be eight to nine feet long, around five feet tall at the shoulder and weigh 770 to 990 pounds. Grevy's zebras have many more and much thinner stripes than other zebras. They may form into small groups of adults for a short period of time. Males frequently live alone. They are found on plains too dry for plains zebras and, unlike other zebras, males are not as territorial and will tolerate other males.

    Behavior

    • All zebras are vegetarian and graze on low-growing plants and grasses. The plains zebra will migrate long distances to find fresh grass that grows after rain. All three species need to drink water regularly and are rarely found more than a day's walk from a permanent source. Zebras can run at 40 miles per hour and are capable of outrunning lions, their most frequent predator.