SANParks.org Forums

Any fans of zebra foals on the forum?

Now these are pics I like of Zebras!!! Odessy - VELLY good!

I agree, very well captured!

I just love taking pictures of zebras, they are so photogenic.

Hi,

I see on the list of mammals of Karoo National Park, that both Burchells and Moutain zebra are found there.

Would there be the possibility that they interbreed creating genetically useless hybrids?

Thanks
Yoda

Yes, they could, and yes, they would be unreproductive!

truth or myth?!

a lot of guides tell you that zebras and gnus often graze in one herds because gnus have poor eyesight but great hearing abilities while zebras have good eyes but poor ears...has that ever been scientifically proven?

thanks

Ice, no that's pure myth.
It's mainly due to protection with numbers! During the great migration between Kenya and Tanzania you have millions of gnus in enormous herds with a few thousand zebras mixed with them. The safety of a single is close to guaranteed for the zebras!

Working with horses which are so much like zebra's I can tell you there is nothing wrong with their hearing. In fact, I would say their hearing is better than their eye sight, often hearing things and then looking. The interesting fact is they have to lift their heads to see close, and keep their heads low to see far.

We had a strange experience in February near Satara. We came across a small foal alone and when we stopped, the foal trotted towards us and rubbed itself against the car [which was white]. The foal had obviously lost its mother but was so persistent in rubbing against the car that we couldn't move without risk of hurting it. We didn't want to touch it, in case its mother did turn up, but in the end we had to push it away from the car. It galloped after us for two hundred yards or more before giving up!! Was it the fact that the car was white that convinced this poor little animal that we were its mother.

Very interesting experience that must of been!

Remarkable, granjan!

I'm stumped!

that is is an unsusall behavior. I do not know is it possible that this zebra had rabies? I don´t belive the thesis with the white car, because with the converse Argument every foal will follow a white car, when the mother is not around. There mus be something else. I have no clue

Hi, Malealea!

Ungulates don't get rabies, as far as I know...

Remember, also, this is a deserted foal, so that is an unusual circumstance where the vehicle could play a part, regardless of colour...


The only thing related I can come up with is the abandoned elephant calf near Skukuza a year or two ago which also approached cars...



Where's Imberbe when you need him!?