Zebras - Stunning Creatures Of The African Wilderness
No commentsBy Greg Dutch
Belonging to the same family as
horses, zebras are famous worldwide for their pajamas look. From small groups to very large herds,
zebras are part of the African landscape and no one likes to come to the black continent and not see
these splendid animals.
Zebras are classified in three
distinct categories: Grevy zebras, mountain zebras and plain zebras, each group with distinct features
and behaviors. There are large parts of Kenya where Grevy’s or imperial zebras coexist with plain
zebras for instance; these two subspecies are actually the ones to resemble horses most.
Though living only in Africa, zebras have adapted to many diverse habitats from savannas and grasslands to mountains, hills and woodlands. Presently, the number of
zebras roaming in the wild is definitely smaller than a century ago since the development of human civilization has had its impact on the zebra
population, not to mention that for quite a while they were abusively hunted for their skins.
The striped patters that
zebras are famous for, represent an ID mark of each individual as the specimens recognize each other
visually. Moreover, the stripes have a very important camouflage function against predators like
lions. The stripes
look just like waving grass particularly when the zebras are gathered in a
herd and lions have great difficulty spotting them because of their monochromatic
view.
Eyesight is a good point for zebras, and scientists
believe that they have a visual acuity that makes them able to distinguish
colors. Moreover, if we count night vision and good hearing too, we realize how well endowed zebras are for
survival. This complex alert system enables the animals to turn their ears in all directions sensing
danger in no time,
and last but not least, the smell and taste are also superior to that of other mammals.
As for food preferences, zebras are very adaptable grazers
feeding on twigs, trees, leaves and bark. Unlike other herbivores that need a high amount of
nutrients, zebras can subsist on less nutritional food for quite long periods of time thanks to their
very good digestive system that is able to extract nutritive substances from almost anything.
When it comes to mating habits, there are specificities to each zebras subspecies, as some live in
harems consisting of mares guarded by a stallion, whereas others get in groups for a few months every
year to mate and then resume a more solitary life. The mating cycle occurs once a year
for females ending with the birth of a single foal.
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 1:45 am and is filed under animals articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
