There are many varieties, one of which is zebra. This interesting striped horse looks more like a fairy-tale or cartoon character than a real inhabitant of the savannah. Where did these on her come from? black and white stripes?
Many scientists for a long time tried to answer this seemingly simple question. Some were inclined to the version that, with the help of color, the zebra camouflages itself from predators that threaten the life of the animal every minute.
For quite some time this version was considered correct. But later everyone unanimously came to the conclusion that the stripes on a zebra scare away the tsetse fly from the animal, the bite of which poses a considerable threat to many. The tsetse fly is a carrier of fever, from which no one is immune.
The striped animal becomes unnoticeable for this scary insect, so its bites can most often be avoided. To understand what kind of animal is zebra, you can visit the zoo and interact with the animal live. It is small in size compared to other inhabitants of the African animal world and has a dense build.
The length of the animal reaches up to 2.5 meters, the length of the tail is 50 cm. Zebra height at the withers about 1.5 meters, weight up to 350 kg. Females, as a rule, are always 10% smaller than males. An important point is the fact that each individual has its own individual pattern.
It's like every person has their own fingerprints. There are three zebra species- those who live in the desert, on the plain and in the mountains. These are odd-toed, smooth-haired animals.
Features and habitat of the zebra
The entire territory of Southeast is permanent place zebra habitat. Plain zebras have chosen the shrouds of the Eastern and Southern parts. Mountain zebras preferred the territory of South-West Africa.
The photo shows a plains zebra
Desert zebras live in Kenya and Ethiopia. Feeding conditions may change due to weather. In dry times, the zebra migrates to wetter territory. Sometimes they can travel a distance of 1000 km. Zebras live in those places where there is a sufficient number plant food.
Animal with zebra legs exists. These are the ones with whom they sometimes cooperate and graze together, in common herds. Thus, it is much easier for them to notice the danger approaching them and flee.
Character and lifestyle of the zebra
The zebra is a very curious animal that often suffers because of this character trait. She has a fairly well-developed sense of smell, so she manages to hear danger in advance. But the zebra has some problems with vision; the predator may be seen at the wrong time.
They live in herds. There are 5-6 mares per male in such families. The head of the family always fiercely guards all his mares and cubs. If one of the herd is in danger, the male boldly enters into a skirmish with the predator until he succumbs to the incredible pressure of the male zebra and retreats. The herd usually numbers from 50 to 60 individuals, but sometimes this number reaches hundreds.
From kind and calm animals, they can turn into angry and wild ones. Zebras can mercilessly beat and bite their enemy. It is almost impossible to tame them. But not a single daredevil managed to ride it. Zebra in the photo involuntarily lead a person into delight. Some incredible beauty and grace is hidden in this wonderful animal.
Zebra food
All plant foods are what they love wild animals zebra. Leaves, shrubs, branches, various herbs and tree bark are what representatives of this genus prefer.
Zebra savannah animal very gluttonous. They just eat great amount vegetation. They need to wash down this dry drink big amount water, for this you will need about 8-10 liters per day.
Reproduction and lifespan
There is no specific breeding season for these animals. A small stallion can be born at any time of the year. Most often this occurs during the wet rainy season, when there are no nutritional problems.
Pregnancy lasts 345-390 days. Mostly one baby is born from her. It weighs on average about 30 kg. Within an hour after birth, the foal can walk and jump freely on its own.
Breastfeeding lasts for the baby more than a year, despite the fact that after a week he tries to nibble the grass on his own. In 50% of cases, newborn zebras die from attacks by predatory animals in the form of hyenas, crocodiles, and lions.
Females produce offspring once every three years. At one and a half years old, animals have finally matured sexually and are ready for independent life. But the female is ready for the birth of a baby only after three years.
Reproductive abilities are preserved in zebras up to 18 years of age. Zebras live in the wild for 25 to 30 years. In captivity, their life expectancy increases slightly, and they live up to 40 years.
1-2 million rubles.
Burchellova, or savannah zebra(Equus quagga)
Class - mammals
Order - odd-toed ungulates
Family - equines
Genus - horses
Appearance
A striped animal of medium size and dense build, with relatively short legs. Body length 2-2.4 m, tail 47-57 cm, height at withers 1.12-1.4 m, weight 290-340 kg. Males are only 10% larger than females. Another difference between males and females is a thicker neck. The mane is short, erect; brush at the end of the tail long hair. The coloring characteristic of zebras consists of alternating dark and light stripes, or rather light stripes on dark background. Each individual has its own unique pattern, it is as individual as human fingerprints. On the front of the body the stripes run vertically, on the croup they are closer to longitudinal. The pattern of stripes varies individually and geographically, which allows us to distinguish 6 subspecies. In general, in the northern subspecies of savannah zebra the stripes are more distinct and cover the entire body, while in the southern subspecies they are wider, on the croup and legs they tend to lighten and “blur”, and against the background of white stripes “shadow”, light-colored stripes are visible. brown stripes. The savanna zebra differs from the desert zebra in its smaller size and sparser stripes; from the mountain zebra - by the absence of a “dewlap”, a characteristic bulge on the neck, and a lattice pattern on the rump.
Habitat
Widely distributed in southeastern Africa, from southern Ethiopia to eastern South Africa and Angola.
Inhabiting savannas and steppes, the savannah zebra prefers cereal and cereal-shrub pastures, especially those located on hills and gentle slopes low mountains. However, it is also found in partially forested areas with tall grass, which contributes to the expansion of its range compared to other zebras. At night, zebras migrate to open areas, which provide less cover for predators.
In nature
Zebras are gregarious, polygamous animals that live in family herds. At the head of the herd is a stallion no younger than 5-6 years old, the rest are females and young animals. The size of the herd depends on living conditions; As a rule, there are no more than 9-10 heads in it. A herd occurs when a young stallion chooses a mare. Soon they are joined by several more females, and they stay together until the end of their lives. The composition of a family herd is constant, although when attacked by predators or during migrations, it can temporarily disintegrate or unite with other herds into herds of up to tens or hundreds of heads. In addition, zebras often graze side by side with other herbivores. Grouping into large herds is a protective measure - it reduces the chances that a particular animal will become prey to predators. Members of a family herd recognize each other even at a considerable distance. Within the herd there is a hierarchy of females with the oldest mare at the head. Young stallions are expelled from the family group at the age of 1-3 years; Before this, there is no antagonism between them and the stallion. Single adult males form separate herds or stay alone. Herding stallions cover the mares of their herd, not allowing outside males to approach them. However, even if a single stallion beats off a female, after mating she returns to her herd. Old or sick stallions are expelled from the herd, which is accompanied by fights. In general, fights between adult stallions who lead herds and between stallions and bachelors are rare.
The savannah zebra roams widely due to seasonal changes feeding conditions, moving to wetter areas during the dry season. In arid areas like the Serengeti (Tanzania), the total length of the annual nomadic route is 805 km, while in the wetter Ngorongoro (Tanzania) zebras all year round live sedentary. One of the adult mares (usually the oldest) leads the herd during migrations; foals follow her in order of increasing age, then other females with young ones, and the stallion brings up the rear. The grazing and watering areas are relatively constant, but are not protected by members of the herd from other zebras and herbivores. The size of the feeding area of one herd can vary from 31 to 622 km².
They feed on herbaceous vegetation, eating about 50 types of herbs. Leaves and shoots are eaten in smaller quantities. Zebras depend on water sources because they must drink at least once a day, and they never move very far from them.
Reproduction
The first heat in mares occurs at the age of 13-15 months; the shoal stallion covers females starting from 1.5 years of age. However, fertilization occurs no earlier than 2-2.5 years, and for the first time the female gives birth to a foal no earlier than 3-3.5 years. Immature females are often beaten off and taken away from the herd by single males. Males become sexually mature at 3 years, but due to competition with older males, they collect their own harems no earlier than 5-6 years.
Zebras do not have a specific breeding season, although their peak birthing season occurs at the beginning of rainy season, December - January. Thus, according to research in the Ngorongoro Nature Reserve, 2/3 of the foals will be born in January - March (rainy season), and only 1/10 in April - September (dry season). Pregnancy lasts 346-390 days, with an average of 370 days. In a litter there are 1, rarely 2 cubs weighing up to 30 kg. Within 10-15 minutes after birth, the foal gets to its feet on its own, after 20 minutes it takes its first steps, after 30-45 minutes it walks noticeable distances, and after an hour it begins to suckle its mother. Usually, the first days after the foal appears, the female does not allow anyone closer than 3 m to it. A stallion, as a rule, stays close to the giving birth mare and, if necessary, protects her. If the newborn is in danger (for example, from hyenas that wander in search of newborn ungulates), the mother hides with the cub in the herd, and all the zebras take part in their protection; however, the mortality rate of cubs from attacks by lions and hyenas is high - up to 50%. Although the foal begins to nibble grass within a week, milk feeding continues until 12-16 months. Zebras usually give birth to a foal once every 2-3 years, but 1/6 of the mares foal annually, becoming pregnant immediately after giving birth. Mares are capable of foaling until they are 15-18 years old.
It is necessary to ensure that animals do not overeat. This is especially true for human food: bread, chips, sugar, corn flakes. Cucumbers grown in your own greenhouse are not the best option for a zebra treat. Such food makes wild animals sick, their water-salt balance is disturbed, and treatment is quite long and expensive.
In captivity, wild horses do not have the usual dangers, so when good care they live longer than in nature. On the other hand, in a pen, animals live in a very limited area and do not have the opportunity to independently determine the composition of the herd, which cannot but affect their well-being. If possible, care should be taken to ensure that the animals move as much as possible, and adult stallions should be separated so that they do not engage in fights.
When keeping zebras in captivity, special attention should be paid to the hooves. In nature, hooves wear down on the ground as they move. But in the pen, animal movement is kept to a minimum. If the hooves are not ground down, they become deformed, become ugly, and walking begins to cause pain for the zebra. Therefore, from time to time it is necessary to trim and grind down part of the hooves, which can only be done under general anesthesia.
But if zebras are well kept and regularly examined by a veterinarian, they will delight you for a long time.
Life expectancy in captivity reaches 40 years.
Doesn't it seem strange to you that an animal has such colors against such a background? In theory, the animal's color should be protective and hide it from predators. So biologists have been trying to answer this question almost since the time of Charles Darwin.
What do you think, is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripe? Answer this question for now...
And under the cut I will tell you what zebras really are and what theories there are about their particular color.
Many people believe that a zebra is White horse V black stripe, since zebras have white bellies. However, studies of zebras at the embryonic stage show that the background color of the animal is black, so it is more correct to consider the zebra to be black with white stripes.
Since black stripes are caused by the genetic process of selective pigmentation (the presence of pigment), therefore, black is the main pigment, and white stripes are its absence. So it's a zebra after all black with white stripes.
There are several evolutionary explanations for why zebras have alternating black and white stripes. For example, they are credited with a protective function: the striped color supposedly confuses lions during an attack. Perhaps ancestors modern zebras This coloring saved us from predators, but now big cats They no longer experience serious difficulties when they want a striped horse for dinner.
Another hypothesis is that the striped coloration is a form of mimicry, it makes the animal less noticeable against the surrounding background. The version is very controversial, considering that with such a coloring a zebra can only hide in a birch grove. Find a birch tree African continent, probably with the same probability as meeting a zebra in a forest near Moscow.
The following explanation assumes social role striped color. Each zebra has its own unique pattern, like fingerprints, and the animals could remember and recognize each other by their individual patterns: for example, a baby could remember the stripes on its mother.
The fourth hypothesis is related to blood-sucking insects, which, as recently discovered, prefer plain surfaces to striped ones. If the striped ancestors of zebras suffered less from the notorious tsetse fly, then in the future they could gain an evolutionary advantage over monochromatic individuals.
“We started by studying black, bay and white horses,” explains Susan Akesson from Lund University, a participant in the international scientific group, who conducted the study. “It was discovered that black and bay colors produce horizontal polarization of light.”
This effect makes dark horses very attractive to flies.
This means that the light reflected from the dark horse's fur, entering the field of view of a hungry horsefly, spreads in a horizontal plane - like a snake that moves without lifting its body from the surface.
Dr. Akesson and her colleagues discovered that horseflies are very attracted to these “flat” light waves.
The light color produces unpolarized light when reflected, says Akesson. Waves of unpolarized light propagate in all planes and attract the attention of insects to a much lesser extent. As a result, white horses suffer significantly less from horseflies than their dark counterparts.
Having established the color preferences of flies, scientists became interested in zebras. They wanted to understand what happens to light when it is reflected from the striped surface of a zebra's body, and what effect it makes on stinging insects - the worst enemies of horses.
"We created an experimental stand on which we installed boards painted in different colors"," Akesson told the BBC. The boards were painted black, white, and a combination of white and black stripes of varying widths, and installed on a horse farm in rural areas in Hungary.
“We put adhesive on the boards and started counting how many insects each one would attract,” she recalls.
As it turned out, a significantly smaller number of blood-sucking animals stuck to the striped surface, which was closest to the natural coloring of the zebra, than to the others - even less than to the white surface, which reflected unpolarized light.
This was unexpected because the striped surface still has dark areas that reflect horizontally polarized light.
Finally, a final explanation links striping to thermoregulation. There is an assumption that black and white coloring can cool the animal better than a single color. The fact is that black and white areas of the body heat up differently: white areas are weaker, black areas are stronger. The resulting temperature difference causes microcirculation air flow next to the animal that helps the zebra live under the hot sun of the savannah.
So what was discovered this time in the zebra, which has already been studied along and across each of its stripes?
A team from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA) conducted a computer study of the relationship between the color patterns of zebras and the conditions of their habitat. On the one hand, 29 were selected various factors, describing the surrounding conditions. On the other hand, the program included coloring zebras from different regions. Color, intensity, length and width of the stripes - the zebra was completely represented as an array of numbers. Further calculations showed what external conditions correlate with the nature of the color. Let's say that zebras that eat one type of grass have, on average, wider stripes on their backs than another group of zebras that feed on a different type of grass. In this case, we can say that the zebra’s diet is related to its color, that there is a correlation between one and the other.
Subjecting mathematical analysis Parameters such as distribution zones of the tsetse fly, the number of predators and a number of others, the researchers found that none of them correlated well with the color pattern of zebras, except for one - the ambient temperature. That is, the climate in which zebras live has the greatest influence on their coloration. The higher average temperature, the brighter and wider the black stripes. Conversely, in colder areas, zebras' coloring is duller, and not even all parts of the body are striped. But in African savannah It's not just zebras that live. Why don't we see antelopes with zebra patterns? The authors of the work explain this by the fact that zebras break down eaten vegetation with less efficiency than other local ungulates. Relative imperfection digestive system makes them eat more, which means they spend more time in the sun. That's why they need additional cooling. Dark-colored and light-colored strips heat up differently, resulting in air convection—a kind of natural air conditioner.
Perhaps the stripes actually contribute to better thermoregulation of the animal due to air microcirculation. Because zebras most time spent on open areas, for them the heat exchange factor with environment more important than all the others. And from an evolutionary point of view, the main enemy of zebras is not hungry lions or dangerous flies tsetse, but the scorching sun.
So which version is the only correct one? Or is it a combination of factors?
It is argued that all these reasons for why zebras are striped are mutually reinforcing. A complex of factors came into play. Most likely, striped individuals first appeared as a result of mutation or the work of hidden genes. Elements of striping are found in both domestic and wild horses, as well as donkeys. But their stripes are not as contrasting as those of zebras. The striping and contrast of stripes increased from generation to generation because striped individuals turned out to be more viable. This turned out to be an evolutionarily advantageous adaptive trait for the population.
It is believed that initially all wild animals have a more uniform dark color. Of course, on the body the coloring turns out to be heterogeneous: the ventral side is always lighter than the dorsal side. Most likely, the ancestors of zebras were dark in color, and white appeared secondarily.
ADF: By the way, the comments quite logically suggested another version of this coloring. Read about it here
Zebra - separate species a genus of horses native to Africa. There are three types of zebras: desert, lowland and mountain.
Plain zebras have chosen the savannas of the eastern and southern parts of the continent. Mountain zebras live in the southwestern part of the continent, which contains a huge number of high mountain plateaus. Representatives of the desert species inhabit Kenya and Ethiopia. It is worth noting that there are very few desert zebras left, so these animals are listed in the Red Book.
Different kinds do not interbreed with each other, even when their territories coincide. When artificially crossing representatives different types is happening a large number of miscarriages.
Appearance of a zebra
Zebras are quite large animals. They can weigh 350 kilograms. Females are slightly smaller than males.
Representatives of the species reach a height (at the shoulders) of 1.3 meters. Body length varies from 2 to 2.6 meters. The length of the tail is approximately 50 centimeters.
The color of the fur is an alternation of stripes of black and white. It is believed that, after all, the main thing is a black background, and it is diluted with white stripes. On the neck, head and front of the body the stripes are placed vertically, on the back of the body they are placed at an angle, and the limbs are decorated with horizontal stripes. Each individual has a strictly individual pattern.
The striped color serves as protection against horseflies and. It also disorients predators, but it does not have the same effect. Lions successfully hunt zebras. Zebras do not run as fast as horses, but they have amazing endurance. Therefore, not many predators hunt them. In addition, zebras have special tactics; they escape from their pursuers in zigzags, rushing from side to side. It is quite difficult to catch up with a zebra. If a zebra is cornered, it rears up, kicks and bites. Zebras have an excellent sense of smell, they have excellent developed vision and hearing.
Zebra behavior and nutrition
Zebras are social animals. Depending on the species, the forms of communication differ. Plains and mountain zebras live family groups, the group is always led by a stallion. Such groups consist of approximately 6 females and foals. Young males unite with each other or lead single image life. Upon reaching adulthood, they also acquire their own harems.
And the flat species does not adhere to constants social connections. These zebras gather in groups for only a few months, then the group breaks up and a new one is formed. Only females remain inseparable with their babies.
Zebras sleep standing up. They always spend the night in groups, thus protecting themselves from predators. Representatives of the species communicate with each other by barking and neighing. A zebra's mood is shown using its ears: calm state The ears are straight; in a state of aggression the ears go back, and in times of fear they move forward. When zebras are angry, they snort loudly. When predators appear, they make loud barking sounds.
Listen to the zebra's voice
The zebra's diet consists of plant foods: leaves, bushes, branches, various herbs and tree bark.
Reproduction and lifespan
Zebra - the object of hunting large predators. Zebras do not have a specific breeding season. The peak birth rate occurs at the beginning of the rainy season, which lasts from December to March. The gestation period is 350-390 days. Females most often give birth to the first foal, but in in rare cases maybe twins. The weight of a newborn is approximately 30 kilograms. The baby almost immediately gets to his feet and follows his mother.
Zebra
Zebra is an exotic animal. It has an almost mythical appearance, yet it is an ordinary representative of the order of odd-toed ungulates, which includes donkeys, donkeys and beautiful kind horses that delight the eyes of spectators at races. Zebras live in Africa. Its height at the withers is about 1.3 meters. The height of horses is measured exactly this way - at the withers: from the neck to the ground.
Zebra species and stripes
Zebras usually live in families. The family usually includes a stallion, several mares and foals. These families graze, gathering in huge herds of up to thousands of heads, sometimes they graze together with antelopes.
There are three species of zebra, and each differs from the other in the characteristics of their stripe pattern: Gravy's zebra has narrow dark stripes and a white belly, while the mountain zebra has thicker stripes (three bold stripes crossing its hind legs).
The savannah zebra has wide stripes that begin on the belly and continue backward to the hind legs. Sometimes there are "shadow stripes" - thinner stripes located between wide stripes.
Previously, there was another, fourth, species of zebra. She was called a quagga - in imitation of her neighing. Quagga by appearance very different from those species of zebras that have survived to the present day. The quagga had stripes only on the head, neck and chest, and the back was an even brown color. As a result of barbaric hunting, by the beginning of the 20th century, the quagga completely disappeared.
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