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Zebras have a less efficient digestive system than ruminants but food passage is twice as fast. [15] Thus, zebras are less selective in foraging, but they do spend much time eating. The zebra is a pioneer grazer and prepares the way for more specialised grazers such as blue wildebeests and Thomson's gazelles. [9] Lions feeding on a zebra
Zebras communicate with various vocalisations, body postures and facial expressions. Social grooming strengthens social bonds in plains and mountain zebras. Zebras' dazzling stripes make them among the most recognizable mammals. They have been featured in art and stories in Africa and beyond.
Grant’s zebras eat the coarse grasses that grow on the African plains, and they are resistant to diseases that often kill cattle, [5] so the zebras do well in the African savannas. However, recent civil wars and political conflicts in the African countries near their habitats has caused regional extinction, and sometimes zebras are killed for ...
Zebras require different hunting methods to those used for wildebeest, due to their habit of running in tight groups and aggressive defence from stallions. Typical zebra hunting groups consist of 10–25 hyenas, [ 17 ] though there is one record of a hyena killing an adult zebra unaided. [ 18 ]
Mountain zebras live in hot, dry, rocky, mountainous and hilly habitats. They prefer slopes and plateaus as high as 2,000 m (6,600 ft) above sea level, although they do migrate lower during winter. Their preferred diet is tufted grass, but in times of shortage, they browse, eating bark, twigs, leaves, buds, fruit, and roots. They drink every day.
The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans as they do not possess most of the typical morphological characteristics of other ungulates, but recent discoveries indicate that they were also descended from early artiodactyls. [5]
Zebras appear to be a monophyletic lineage [10] [11] [12] and recent (2013) phylogenies have placed Grévy's zebra in a sister taxon with the plains zebra. [10] In areas where Grévy's zebras are sympatric with plains zebras, the two may gather in same herds [13] and fertile hybrids do occur. [14]
Cape mountain zebra and young. Like all zebra species, the Cape mountain zebra has a characteristic black and white striping pattern on its pelage, unique to individuals. As with other mountain zebras, it is medium-sized, thinner with narrower hooves than the common plains zebra, and has a white belly like the Grévy's zebra.