Out to Africa // Zebra
Meet the
Zebra
Species
Plains Zebras, Grevy’s
Zebras & Mountain Zebras
Behavior
Social – family groups & herds
Origin
Africa
Habitat
Varied – from mountainous
woodlands to treeless plains
Lifespan
40 years in captivity,
25 years in the wild
Diet
Herbivores
Reproduction
Up to one foal
every 12 months
Predators
Lions, hyenas, leopards,
hunting dogs, cheetahs
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Out to Africa // Zebra
Did you know?
• The zebra’s body is black with white stripes,
and not the other way around.
• Zebras are wild at heart and seemingly impossible
to domesticate. While similar to horses, attempts at
training them have proven unsuccessful due to
their unpredictable behavior and tendency
to panic under stress.
• Zebras take good care of their kin.
If one of their herd is attacked, the
rest circle round to drive off the
predator, and protect their herd
member from further harm.
• Like horses, zebras sleep
standing up.
A zebra’s stripes are like
the human fingerprint or
a snowflake – a unique
identifier for each
individual. While each
specifies has a similar
pattern, no two zebras’
prints are exactly
identical.
The zebra lifestyle
All zebra species are native to Africa.
Plains Zebra live in southern and eastern
Africa; Mountain Zebra in Southwest Africa;
and Grevy’s Zebra in Northern Kenya and the
semi-arid grasslands of Ethiopia. Social by
nature, they generally live in familial-based
herds consisting of one dominant stallion
(male), several mares (females), and their
foals (offspring). Plains and Mountain Zebra
tend to stick together in their herds for the
long term, while Grevy’s Zebra stay together
in groups for only a few months at a time,
with the fathers wandering off on their own
and the foals remaining with their mothers.
Strict herbivores, zebras spend much of their
days grazing, mostly on grasses. Though
greener pastures are preferred, they are able
to make do on coarse, dry fare if drinking
water is available nearby.
Media Type: Boise Offset smooth
Paper Weight: 60# text
Publication number: 4AA4-7483ENW
How DID the zebra
get its stripes?
Nobody really knows how the zebra got
its stripes or what they’re really for. Most
theories attribute the unique pattern to
some sort of camouflage protection – either
that the pattern makes it difficult for a
predator to target a single zebra for prey
when standing amongst a herd; that the
stripes help to distance so the predator
can not accurately determine the zebra’s
location; or that with the black and white
coloration, the zebra is better able to
blend into the surroundings at dawn and
dusk, which is when its predators are most
actively on the prowl.
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