50 Fun Facts About Zebra

How many living zebra species are there?

Grévy's, plains and mountain zebra; the extinct quagga was a type of plains zebra.

Zebras share the genus Equus with which two other groups?

The three groups are the only living members of the family Equidae.

What colour is a zebra's skin under its coat?

The coat looks white with black stripes because unstriped areas like the belly are white, but the skin itself is black.

Which hypothesis for zebra stripes has the most evidence behind it?

Flies avoid landing on striped surfaces; horses dressed in zebra-print coats got the same protection.

What colour are zebra foals' stripes at birth?

The brown darkens with age; albino zebras from Mount Kenya keep blonde stripes for life.

What did the Greeks and Romans call the zebra?

The English word came later via Portuguese 'zebro', a name first used for a mysterious wild equine of medieval Iberia.

The word 'zebra' probably descends from which Latin term meaning 'wild horse'?

It entered Portuguese as 'ezebro' and was recorded for the African animal by Filippo Pigafetta in 1591.

A 2013 study found the plains zebra is most closely related to which other species?

The mountain zebra split off around 1.6 million years ago; plains and Grévy's diverged 1.4 million years ago.

On which continent did the genus Equus originate?

A 700,000-year-old horse bone from Canada helped date the equine common ancestor to about 4 million years ago.

What is a cross between a zebra and a horse called?

A zonkey has a donkey parent and a zoni a pony; zebroids are often born sterile and dwarfed.

Unlike other living equines, zebras have which physical oddity?

Like asses, they have chestnuts only on the front legs, unlike horses.

What did Charles Darwin write in 1871 about a female zebra and a male ass?

He was making a case for stripes as a social signal, a hypothesis that later evidence has not supported.

A 2018 experiment tested the thermoregulation hypothesis by dressing what in zebra hides?

The stripes had no effect on temperature, though a 2019 study found air swirls forming where warm black stripes meet white ones.

Plains zebras make the longest land migration of any African mammal, roughly how far?

The route runs between Namibia and Botswana; they seem to remember where foraging was best.

How long can a Grévy's zebra survive without water?

They will still drink daily if they can, and hold water better than cattle.

What is the plains zebra's role as a 'pioneer grazer'?

Zebras have a simpler gut than ruminants but can live on lower-quality vegetation.

Which predator hunts zebras most?

A zebra tops out at about 50 km/h against a lion's 74, so it escapes by turning sideways rather than by speed.

How does a zebra escape a faster lion?

One study clocked zebras at 50 km/h and lions at 74 km/h; kicking and biting are the last resort.

What is the stable family group of most zebra species called?

One stallion, several mares and their foals; the group stays stable even if the stallion is displaced.

When a plains zebra family travels, who leads?

The stallion trails at the back; the highest-ranking females are those who have been in the group longest.

How do male Grévy's zebras mark their large territories?

The most dominant males hold territory around watering holes, which attracts mares with foals.

The plains zebra's contact call is usually written how?

Grévy's zebra's call is described as 'something like a hippo's grunt combined with a donkey's wheeze'.

How long is a zebra's gestation?

A single foal is usual, and it can run within an hour of birth.

A newborn zebra will follow anything that moves. What do mothers do about it?

Foals begin to graze at a few weeks but may nurse for eight to thirteen months.

In Grévy's zebras, where do young stay when their mothers go to drink?

A stallion may protect a foal that is not his own to keep its mother in his territory.

A Maasai proverb compares a man lacking culture to what?

The San people, meanwhile, linked zebra stripes with water, rain and lightning.

The plains zebra is the national animal of which country?

For the Shona of Zimbabwe it is a totem animal, and the girls' name Madhuve means 'woman of the zebra totem'.

Which comic-book heroine is depicted riding a zebra?

Explorer Osa Johnson was also photographed riding one.

In which film is a captive zebra, shunned by racehorses, ridden by a rebellious girl?

Khumba and Zou are animated zebras; Marty of Madagascar is the most famous of all.

Carel Weight's painting of a zebra escaping a zoo during an air raid was based on a real incident at which zoo?

The four-panel work looks like a comic strip.

In 1417, a zebra was displayed before which Chinese emperor as a gift from Somalia?

Sultan Baibars had sent one to Alfonso X of Castile in 1261, and Mughal emperor Jahangir received one from Ethiopia in 1620.

A zebra given to George III's bride as a wedding gift in 1762 was nicknamed what by satirists?

Crowds visited it at Buckingham Palace, George Stubbs painted it in 1763, and it kicked at visitors.

Grévy's zebra is named after a president of which country?

Ethiopia sent Jules Grévy a zebra in 1882.

Which zoologist trained zebras to pull a carriage and drove it to Buckingham Palace?

He would not ride them, knowing they were too small and aggressive; zebras have never been fully domesticated.

Zebras pulled chariots in Roman amphitheatre games from the reign of which emperor?

That was 198 to 217 AD; German colonial officers in East Africa later tried riding them with limited success.

How does the IUCN classify Grévy's zebra?

Fewer than 2,000 mature individuals remain, though numbers are stable; the mountain zebra is Vulnerable and the plains zebra Near Threatened.

Roughly how many plains zebras are estimated to survive?

The trend is decreasing; mountain zebras number about 35,000 and are increasing.

What was the quagga?

It had stripes only on the head and neck, with brown upper parts and a white belly.

The last captive quagga died in 1883 in which city's zoo?

The last wild one had died in 1878; only 23 skins and seven skeletons survive.

The quagga holds what distinction in genetics, achieved in 1984?

Only two quaggas were ever photographed alive; the Quagga Project tries to breed back its look from plains zebras.

How many quaggas were ever photographed alive?

The Quagga Project, pioneered by Reinhold Rau, selectively breeds zebras with quagga-like reduced striping.

The Cape mountain zebra was down to fewer than how many animals by the 1950s?

South African National Parks protection lifted the subspecies to about 2,600 by the 2010s.

Where was the world's first zebra crossing installed, in 1951?

The stripes are credited to traffic engineer George Charlesworth; Belisha beacons had marked crossings since the 1930s.

Zebras spend roughly what share of their time feeding?

They sleep up to seven hours a day, standing by day and lying down at night.

Which zebras strengthen their bonds by social grooming?

Plains and mountain zebras nibble along each other's necks and backs to cement bonds and rank.

Rock art depicting zebras in southern Africa dates back as far as when?

They appear less often than antelope such as eland.

Naturalist Thomas Pennant described the zebra in 1781 as what?

Wildlife photographers have called it the most photogenic animal.

What may explain why zebras were never domesticated like horses and donkeys?

Early humans were among those predators; the animals have been trained but never truly tamed.

Which Japanese company shares its name with the animal and makes pens?

British firm Reckitt and Sons once sold 'Zebra Grate Polish' too.

How high up can mountain zebras be found?

Plains zebras stay within 10-12 km of water and prefer moister country.