Wildlife: Mammals -
Zebra 2/3
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Wildlife
Equus Burchelli, Burchell's Zebra, Bontsebra.
Life history
Oestrus lasts up to 5 days. Gestation will take up to 390 days. Single foals
are born at any time of year. Usually birth peaks in summer. In the Kruger
National Park 85% of births are between October and March. The foals will weigh
up to 35 kilogramms at birth. It will stand after 10 minutes, will walk after 30
minutes and will run after 60 minutes. The foal starts eating grasses at 10 days
of age and weans at 10 months of age. Lion and spotted hyaena take adult zebras.
Foals are taken by lions, spotted hyaena, crocodiles, cheetah and leopards.
Zebra provide 16% of lion kills in Kruger National Park.
 Behaviour
Zebra will be seen active during the early morning and late
afternoons. Thus avoiding the heat of the day. It will drink at
least one time each day while preferring clean water. The zebra
will scrape a hole in the ground to provide himself with clean
water. Home ranges in the Kruger National Park cover up to 220
square kilometres. Considerable distances are covered while
grazing.
The basic social unit is the breeding herd of a stallion with an
average of four or five mares in the Kruger National Park.
Stallions will fight visciously for control of females. Males
that do not hold breeding herds join bachelor groups. These
groups will contain up to 15 males. The alarm call is a
high-pitched "kwa-ha" from wich the old name quagga comes. The
herd will flee in a tight group when predators cause danger. The
Burchell's zebra will reach speeds up to 55 kilometres an hour
when fleeing. The males in the herd will go forward and outward
to bite and ward of any predator. Predators usually try to
separate one individual from the herd to be successful.
Field Signs
The Burchell's zebra can be localised by the presence of dust
baths. The dung consists out of kidney-shaped lumps. Which are 5
centimetres or so across. Usually with a crack across and
loosely stuck together.
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