A Zebra's Protection From Predators

A zebra's stripes serve as a kind of protection from predators.

Picture from The Animal Files

When zebras are grouped together, their combined stripes make it hard for a lion or leopard to pick out one zebra to chase. Zebra stripes are unique to each individual, and researchers in the field have used zebras’ individual stripe patterns for identification.
 

Okapi - The Giraffe's Cousin

With its striking stripes, the okapi may seem to resemble a type of zebra. However, this African mammal is actually a member of the giraffe family, and is the giraffe’s closest living relative.

Okapis are native to the rainforests of Central Africa near the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite their small range, okapis are not considered endangered and have an estimated worldwide population of 10,000-20,000.

Okapis have a similar body shape to giraffes but have a much shorter neck. They have zebra-like stripes on their legs and lower body, and reddish-black fur on their backs. Due to their rainforest habitat, this fur is oily to repel water. Okapis usually measure six to eight feet long and weigh between 440 and 660lb.

Like giraffes, okapis have long and sticky tongues to help strip the leaves and buds they eat from trees, as well as wash their eyes and ears. Keeping eyes and ears clean is important to the okapi, as it must always listen and watch for its main natural predator, the leopard.

The Grévy's Zebra

The well-known plains zebra is perhaps one of the most familiar symbols of African wildlife. This fully striped member of the horse family has been the subject of many films and photographs, and maintains a strong presence throughout its range. However, there is another species of zebra that looks somewhat unrelated; the Grévy's zebra.

The Grévy's zebra is the largest wild member of the equine family in the world. Most measure 8-9 feet from head to tail, stand around five feet high at the shoulders and weigh 800-1000lbs. Compared to other zebras which are horse-like in appearance, the Grévy's zebra has a larger head, longer ears and thicker mane. Many experts consider the Grévy's zebra to be more closely related to donkeys than horses, and it is thus classified as the only member of the subgenus Dolichohippus. In addition to differences in physical proportions, the Grévy's zebra can be distinguished from plains zebras by their narrower, more closely-spaced stripes and pure-white undersides.

Grévy's zebras also differ in behavior from other zebra species. Whereas most zebras live in herds or harems, the Grévy's zebra often does not. Mares and their foals can be found together in loosely-defined herds, but stallions are usually territorial, occasionally living in small groups outside of mating season, or roaming alone if they are bachelors. .

Native to much of eastern Africa, Grévy's zebras can usually only be found today in isolated pockets of Kenya and Ethiopia. Though now a protected species in both countries, Grévy’s zebra populations have dropped 75% in the last fifty years to an estimated remaining wild population of 2,500 animals. The population was considered stable as of 2008.

Amazing Animal Hand Art

I’ve decided to take a break today from sharing animal facts with you guys to show you some amazing animal hand art I ran across on Illusion King. The detail of this artwork is incredible! In fact, I’d feel bad about washing my hands if I had any of these painted on me; enjoy!

 

Unique Zebra Stripes

The zebra has the most distinctive coat out of any animal. Their stripes are unique to each animal — just like fingerprints to humans — no two are alike. Scientists believe that these stripes are used as a form of camouflage, maybe so that these stripes can make it hard for predators to identify a single zebra in a herd. Or the stripes may discourage insects that only see large areas of single-colored fur.

African Animals

This is a really cool video of African animals accompanied by an Enya song. Watching it just makes me want to go to Africa and go on a safari to experience it myself!



If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll actually know the name of the oryx when you see him walk across in front of the ostrich. The zebra is not biting his fellow herd-mate, but grooming him. I loved the surprise of the hippos popping to the surface. And even baby hyenas are cute. This video reminded me of those African animals not yet blogged, so I plan to remedy that over the next few days.

If you’d like to hear some real African music while watching more animals, try this video of Kenya music. Warning: it’s 9 minutes long and there are sections with just bird sounds.



Happy New Year!

Not related to the zebra, despite those stripes

Okapi (pronounced o-COP-e), a relation of the giraffe family, has a short neck and coloration definitely different from a giraffe. Okapis are reddish brown, but their legs have black and white zebra stripes!

Like giraffes, their tongues are blue. Okapi tongues are long enough that they can wash their own eyelids and ears. (Not many mammals can do that, and frankly, I don’t want to!)

Okapis are about 6 ft long and 5 to 5.5 ft high at the shoulder. This picture is of a mom and baby from the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois. Only the males have horns.

From the Ituri Rainforest in central Africa, okapis are not classified as endangered. But they are threatened by habitat destruction and poaching.

Jungle Jane

New kid swinging through the trees

Yesterday, was my first blog--I've taken this blog over from the company president--so I figured I should introduce myself. My name is Jungle Jane and I've been fascinated by wild animals since I was a child. My favorites are big cats: tigers, lions, leopards, etc. But I also like elephants, zebras, and giraffes as you'd be able to tell if you came to my house.

I've never been to Africa--a dream I hope to fulfill someday--but I've been to Asia, where I got to feed bananas to a baby elephant. Did you know they eat the whole thing including peel and stem?!

I've also petted two cheetahs in a wildlife park in Oregon. They're the only big cat who purrs, and just like my kitty cats at home, one cheetah rubbed his head against my arm to say "more petting please."

If you, like me, love jungle animals, you'll love what you find at our store.

JJ

Zebra Stripes

Zebras have uniquely identifiable stripes.

We have resently added some cool zebra print stationary to the site.

Types Of Zebras

There are three types of zebra species: the plains zebra, the mountain Zebra and Grévy'ss zebra. The plains zebra is the most common type and has 12 subspecies living in much of southern and eastern Africa.

Plains zebra

The mountain zebra lives in southwest Africa and tends to have a sleek coat with a white belly and narrower stripes than the plains Zebra.

Mountain zebra

Grévy's zebra is the largest type, with a long, narrow head, making it appear rather mule-like. Grévy's zebra is the rarest species, and is classified as endangered.

Grevy's zebra

Can you tell much of a difference between the three species of zebras? It's OK, we really can't either ;-)