* NOT many people realise there are two different zebra species in southern Africa, one of which is divided into two subspecies. The zebras visitors to game reserves are most likely to encounter are the Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchellii) often referred to as the plains zebra and widespread in southern Africa.
The Cape Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra zebra) was once found in most of the Cape mountains south of the Orange river but is now mostly restricted to game reserves in the area formerly known as the Cape province.
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The other mountain zebra sub-species, Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae), is only found in Namibia.
* The plains zebras have black and white stripes with brownish shadow stripes. Their stripes extend to their underparts.
* The mountain zebras do not have shadow stripes but, unlike their plains cousins, have leg stripes that go all the way to their hooves. Their grid-iron patterned rumps and their dewlaps are important identification pointers.
* Mountain and plains zebras are grazers, although they sometimes browse.
*Mother zebras usually produce single foals in summer. Within 15 minutes of birth, a baby zebra is able to stand up on its own, and within an hour, it is able to walk then run.
*Mature zebras have a top speed of 64km per hour.
* No-one is sure whether zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes, but their stripes are probably used to confuse predators. Stripe patterns are unique, like our fingerprints, and it is thought that this helps zebras to identify each other.
There is evidence that a mother zebra will position herself between her newborn foal and the rest of the herd so that the foal can imprint on her pattern.
*The Mountain Zebra National Park was established in 1937 to protect the Cape mountain zebra and was instrumental in pulling this animal back from the abyss of extinction. Thankfully efforts to conserve the Cape mountain zebras have been successful and they have been taken off the endangered species list.
* Like their fellow plains dwellers, the wildebeest, zebras are born to roam, according to Mitch Reardon in his book, ‘Shaping Kruger’.
He makes the point that the Lowveld once had its regular annual migrations of wildebeest and plains zebras, triggered by rains and the filling up of pans or, in winter, the lack of water and the need for these animals to trek back to pastures adjacent to permanent flowing rivers.
Fences and artificial permanent water points have disrupted this natural form of veld management
* Research has shown that the extinct quagga is genetically the same as the plains zebra, although colour variations separate them. The quagga’s stripes have a chestnut background and there are no stripes on the hindquarters.
A quagga project, started with a group of pale-rumped individuals more than 20 years ago, is starting to produce animals that look very like the samples of quagga skins found in museums.
It is thought that Zebra stripes were more pronounced in the north, with the stripes diminishing in more southerly areas, the extreme south producing the quaggas. Mokala National Park, near Kimberley, would have been home to an intermediate form with reduced stripes, so Sanparks chose light-rumped individuals for reintroduction into the park.
Sources: Wild Card Website, Sanpark’s official Mokala National Park information guide book, Shaping Kruger by Mitch Reardon and Chris and Tilde Stuart’s Mammals of southern Africa field guide.
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