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| News :. Zebras: Born to Roam
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 African habitat and mesmerizing striped hides are two things that the three zebra species have in common-but their differences add to their fascination. The grassland-loving plains zebra, familiar in its horse-like appearance, has wide black-and-white alternating stripes completely covering its body. Dwelling in the semidesert areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, Grevy's zebra is the tallest and longest of the species, with big, comical-looking rounded, furry ears atop a large head. This animal's striking coat has narrow, evenly spaced stripes and a white belly, a feature shared with the mountain zebra, the third type. That species, small and stocky, is distinguished by long, tapered ears that stick out to the sides of its head, a flap of skin under its throat called a dewlap, and hard, pointed hooves for navigating steep terrain in the continent's southwest.
Another common element in the zebras' existence is humans; while people are zebras' biggest threat, they are also key to survival. Trophy hunting, poaching, human settlement, and competition for scarce water resources all menace the three zebra species. The endangered mountain zebra has suffered a population decline of some 50 percent over ten years but is successfully being protected in sanctuaries such as South Africa's Mountain Zebra National Park.
The expansion of livestock farming in Kenya has encroached on the endangered Grevy's zebra's range and hampered its reproductive success, but the species is being helped by a hunting ban there. The plains zebra population in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of Kenya and Tanzania is healthy and stable, and over two-thirds of that species' numbers reside in those two countries, where tens of thousands roam the savannas.
-Nancie Majkowski |
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