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Title: Zebra View count: 131979 Rating: 4.6404495 (89 ratings) Description: Zebra are in the genus Equus, and are related to both asses and horses. Equine are one-toed herbivores that arose in the early Pleistocene Epoch about 2 million years ago. All equids forage primarily on fibrous foods, such as grasses and sedges, as well as bark, leaves, buds, fruits, and roots. Equids employ a hindgut fermentation system, utilizing an enlarged appendix in which plant cell walls are only incompletely digested. By ingesting large quantities of food, they achieve extraction rates equal to those of ruminants. Zebras mostly inhabit the grasslands and savannahs of Africa. Like all equid, they are highly social mammals that exist in herds comprising of a senior stallion and his harem of mares. They usually only have one foal a year after undergoing a gestation period of 11.5 months (12.5 months in the Grevy's Zebra). There are a number of theories surrounding the advantage of zebras having a coat of black and white stripes. It is speculated that the stripes confuse predators, such as lions, making it more difficult for them to isolate and cull a single animal from the herd. A park ranger from Africa I know thinks that the stripes provide camouflage out on the hot savannah plains. He had noticed that the heat vapor rising from the ground could completely conceal an entire herd of zebra standing in front of him. All photographs are the property of Dafttool & cannot be reproduced or used without the expressed authorization of Dafttool. Tags: dafttool, zebra, zoo, equine, horse, ass, animal, camouflage, stallion, foal, nursing, mare, baby, exotic, wildlife, nature, photography, Author: dafttool |
