Size: Height up to 1.4m. Weight up to 340kg.

Habitat and Distribution: Open savannah and grasslands in East Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Age: Up to 30 years in captivity.

Groups and Breeding: Zebras form small harems, with a single stallion and up to six females, plus offspring. Males without harems will sometimes form large bachelor groups.

They become sexually mature at around 3 years but a male may not actually be able to get access to females until he is about 6 (as he is not strong enough to fight the more mature males). Once pregnant, gestation lasts about 370 days when the female gives birth to a single foal. If she is healthy the female may become pregnant again immediately! Young can be born at any time of the year but there is a peak during the early rainy season (December to January).

Diet: Zebras are primarily grazers of grasses and sedges but may also eat bark, leaves, buds, fruits and roots. They must drink water every day so will always be found near water sources.

• The stripe pattern on each zebra is a unique ‘fingerprint’ so no two zebras have the same striping pattern.
• Male zebras can be very vicious and have been known to kill a hyena with a single kick. If they chance upon unprotected cheetah or lion cubs, they will stomp and bite them to death.
• There are 3 species of zebra, the Plains Zebra (of which Chapman’s Zebra is one), the Mountain Zebra and Grevy’s Zebra.
• Sometimes family groups of zebras will team up with other zebras and even other species to protect themselves from predators.
• No one really knows why a zebra has stripes; scientists have shown that it isn’t for camouflage or to make it difficult for predators to single out individual animals. So the reason remains a mystery!
• Zebras can breed with donkeys to produce a zebdonk!