Mountain Zebra - description, habitat, lifestyle

Mountain Zebra is a species of zebra native to South-West Angola, the highlands of Namibia, and also South-West Africa.

Habitat

Mountain zebras live in hot, dry, mountainous, rocky and hilly habitats. They prefer slopes up to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level, although they migrate lower in winter. There are 2 subspecies of mountain zebras: Cape and Hartman.

The Hartman Mountain Zebra usually lives in coastal Southern Angola, as well as Namibia. They are deft climbers who can live on arid steep mountains. These mammals demonstrate amazing climbing abilities, capturing steep, rugged terrain with more confidence than the zebra of the plains.

Mountain Zebra Description

This iconic icon of Africa is a recognizable member of the horse family, distinguished by the pattern of bright black and white stripes that turn into its short, straight mane.Mountain zebra differs from others in thin and relatively close vertical black lines on the neck and torso, which, moreover, are more numerous than in other species, as well as wide horizontal stripes on its hips, wider than in others.

Unlike the plain zebra, the mountain one also lacks “shadow stripes”, and the stripes do not occur under the belly. Instead, it is white with a central black stripe. However, the most diagnostic features of this species are the “mesh pattern” pattern of narrow stripes on the rump and a square skin flap, or dewlap that exists on the throat of this zebra. The mountain zebra is a good climber on steep, rocky terrain. She developed very sharp and stiff hooves. Body length - up to 250 cm, tail length - 40-50 cm, shoulder height - 116-150 cm, weight - 240-372 kg.

The Cape Zebra is the smallest live zebra. It differs from Hartman's zebra in its smaller size, slightly thicker black stripes and slight variations of the bands on the sacrum.

Zebras have very good day and night vision. They have binocular vision in the front and probably they can see in color.They also have excellent hearing, which can detect sounds from far away. Mountain zebras also have a very keen sense of taste and can detect minor changes in the quality of their food.

Lifestyle

Zebras are daytime, being active during the day and sleeping at night. They show increased activity at dawn and dusk. Almost half of their active time is spent on feeding. In addition, they take dust baths 1-2 times a day.

This herd species lives in breeding herds, consisting of one adult male, from one to five adult females and their cubs. All members occupy a position in the social hierarchy, headed by the dominant adult stallion, who is responsible for protecting the herd.

Breeding herds live in overlapping areas, with no signs of territoriality. And sometimes these herds even come together to form larger temporary populations of up to 30 individuals. The extra males live in groups, from which people periodically try to create a new herd with young females, or to take over the existing one, displacing the dominant stallion.

Breeding

This polygamous species breeds throughout the year, although there are regional peaks of birth. Females produce one foal every 1-3 years, the gestation period lasts about one year. While most mountain cape zebras leave their mother flocks of their own choosing between 13-37 months of age, or about three months after the birth of another baby, Hartman's mountain zebras try to drive their 14-16 months old babies out of the herd before the next baby is born. .

Young males can roam alone for some time before joining a group of bachelors, while females either climb into another breeding herd or join bachelors to form a new breeding herd.

Power Features

Their preferred food is green grass, but during periods of shortage, they begin to look for and eat bark, twigs, leaves, buds, fruits and roots. Individuals drink every day. When there is no surface water due to drought, they usually dig the ground in dried riverbeds.

Main threats

The main threats to mountain zebra are competition with livestock, hunting and stalking, loss of habitat due to agriculture, and the risk that the two subspecies interbreed with each other, leading to a loss of genetic diversity.

The Cape Zebra used to occupy all the mountain ranges of the Southern Cape Province of South Africa, but by 1997 there were less than 750 left. This subspecies is the largest mammal in South Africa, which is close to extinction. Despite the fact that they probably never had too much, their numbers declined, because the herds had to compete with sheep and cattle for pastures, because the habitat was increasingly turning into agricultural land.The hunt was also out of control, and this zebra was a frequent victim.

Although both subspecies of mountain zebras are currently protected in national parks, they are still under threat. For them, a European program has been created to study endangered animal species and to jointly manage zoo populations around the world.