Zebra

Black and white stripes.

• Zebras are from the family Equidae, which is the family of horses, although they are generally slower than their cousins, and they run in a zig zag line when chased.
• Zebras are known for their black and white stripey patterns that cover their body, head and legs, with no two zebras having the exact same pattern.
• Zebras are found in African grasslands, scrublands, woodlands, mountainous areas, savannas, and coastal areas.
• There are three different species of zebras, plains zebras; mountain zebras; and Grévy’s zebras, with the plains zebras being the most common, and the other two species are endangered.
• One sub species of plains zebra is extinct due to hunting – the quagga, which did not have a full body of stripes.

 Zebras
Image courtesy of National Geographic

• Tests have shown that the stripes on zebras help reduce the attractiveness of flies.
• Zebras grow up to 350 kg (770 pounds) in weight and between 1 and 1.6 metres (3 ft 2 and 5 ft 3) to their shoulder in height.
• Zebras are herbivores, and mainly eat grass, and can exist on low quality feed.
• Zebras always sleep standing up, but they only do it when there are fellow zebras on watch for predators like lions and hyenas.
• Zebras have not been domesticated due to their panicky and unpredictable nature, although there have been single cases of zebras trained for human use.

Bibliography:
Zebra, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra>