Some fast facts about zebras:
Phylum: Chordata
Family name: Equidae
Classification: Mammal
IUCN status: Plains zebra: Least Concern. Grevy’s zebra: Endangered. Mountain zebra: Vulnerable
Lifespan (in wild): 25 years
Weight: 200-450 kg
Body length: 2.2-2.5m
Top speed: 65km/h
Diet: Herbivore
Habitat: Grassland
 |
| A zebra |
Is a zebra a horse?
Zebras are closely related to horses but they’re not the same species. They’re both in the Equidae family and they can even breed with each other.
The breeding between Zebra and horse: The offspring (zebroids) have different names dependent on the parents. A male zebra and female horse produces a zorse, and a female zebra and male horse produces hebra.
 |
Zebra Crossed with Horse |
(Zebras can also breed with donkeys, to produce a zedonk.)
 |
A zebra crossed with a donkey |
Offspring of all crossovers are sterile, as zebras, horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes.
The purpose of the zebra's unique black-and-white coat: Some have suggested that the stripes may help zebras camouflage themselves and escape from lions and other predators; avoid nasty bites from disease-carrying flies; or control body heat by generating small-scale breezes over the zebra's body when light and dark stripes heat up at different rates.
How do a zebra's stripes act as camouflage?
When all the zebras keep together as a big group, the pattern of each zebra's stripes blends in with the stripes of the zebras around it. Zoologists believe stripes offer zebras protection from predators in a couple of different ways.
The first is as simple pattern-camouflage, much like the type the military uses in its fatigue design. The wavy lines of a zebra blend in with the wavy lines of the tall grass around it. It doesn't matter that the zebra's stripes are black and white and the lines of the grass are yellow, brown or green, because the zebra's main predator, the lion, is colorblind. The pattern of the camouflage is much more important than its color, when hiding from these predators. If a zebra is standing still in matching surroundings, a lion may overlook it completely.
This benefit may help an individual zebra in some situations, but the more significant means of protection has to do with zebra herds. Zebras usually travel in large groups, in which they stay very close to one another. Even with their camouflage pattern, it's highly unlikely a large gathering of zebras would be able to escape a lion's notice, but their stripes help them use this large size to their advantage. When all the zebras keep together as a big group, the pattern of each zebra's stripes blends in with the stripes of the zebras around it. This is confusing to the lion, who sees a large, moving, striped mass instead of many individual zebras. The lion has trouble picking out any one zebra, and so it doesn't have a very good plan of attack. It's hard for the lion to even recognize which way each zebra is moving: The lion's inability to distinguish zebras also makes it more difficult for it to target and track weaker zebras in the herd.
Zebra stripes: zebra stripes actually help zebras recognize one another. Stripe patterns are like zebra fingerprints: Every zebra has a slightly different arrangement. Zoologists believe this is how zebras distinguish who's who in a zebra herd. This certainly has significant benefits. A zebra mare and her foal can keep track of each other in the large herd, for example, and a zebra can very quickly distinguish its own herd from another
The species: Our planet is home to three different species of zebra, the plains zebra, Grevy’s zebra and mountain zebra, all three species are native to Africa.
The most common species is the plains zebra, which roams grasslands and woodland of eastern and southern Africa. The Grevy’s zebra can be found in dry, semi-desert areas of Kenya and Ethiopia, and the mountain zebra lives in mountainous and hilly habitats in Namibia, Angola and South Africa.
Food Habit: These cool creatures are herbivores and spend most of their day eating grass, and sometimes leaves, shrubs twigs and bark, too. Their teeth are well adapted for grazing, with sharp incisors at the front of their mouth to bite the grass, and large molars at the back for crushing and grinding.
Zebras are constantly on the move for fresh grass to eat and water to drink. Super stealthy creatures, they’ll travel thousands of kilometres in search of green pastures where they can fill their bellies and quench their thirst!
The sociality of zebras: Zebras are social animals and live together in large groups, called herds. As they migrate to new feeding grounds, ‘super herds’ may form consisting of thousands of individuals. They may team up with other grazers on their travels, too, such as antelope and wildebeest.
Within a herd, zebras tend to stay together in smaller family groups, made up of a dominant male, several females (called ‘mares’) and their young (called ‘foals’). When they are between one and three years old, males (or ‘stallions’) leave to join ‘bachelor herds’ (all-male groups), where they stay until they’re old enough and strong enough to compete for females.
 |
A Zebra with it's Young one (Foal) |
Their fierce fighting skills and strong social bonds help to protect zebras from predators, which include lions, leopards, hyenas and cheetahs. When under threat, these awesome animals form a semi-circle facing the attacker, and prepare to strike if need be. And if one of the group is wounded or injured, other zebras will circle around and attempt to drive off the hungry attacker. All for one and one for all!
 |
A herd of Zebras (Really confusing ) |
Authored & published by: Sahidul Islam (vetuniverse.blogspot.com)
Dated : the 25th nov 2020
[for more info visit the profile section]
(All copyrights of this article belongs to vetuniverse.blogspot.com , No part of this article is to be transformed, modified or reproduced without the proper permission from the author)
No comments:
Post a Comment