zebra

{plural – the same spelling and pronunciation ‘zebra’, or with an ‘s’, ‘zebras’}

a kind of animal – mammal – four-legged – grass-eating – (mostly) diurnal (active during day) – related to the horse family – donkey-like body, short, thick coat (body hair) with white or pale brown stripes on black back-ground and white on the belly and inner side of legs, large, horse-like head with large, straight, slightly rounded, flexible ears which can be moved in any direction, round, clear eyes on either side of the head, long, blunt, black muzzle (= mouth and nose part), long, thick neck with short, stiff, erect mane on the  back of it, straight, slender but strong legs with hooves, long tail with a tuft of black hair at the end; size: 8 feet long, 4-5 feet tall at the shoulder, and weight: 300-400 Kg. (male larger than female); feeds on (eats) grasses, shrubs, leaves; lives for about 25 years in the wild and 40 years in captivity; four species and several subspecies, found in Africa

male ~~  stallion

female ~~ mare

baby ~~ foal [‘colt’ - young male; ‘filly’ - young female]

group ~~ harem (small family group); herd, cohort, crossing, stripe, zeal, dazzle (?)

voice ~~ bark, whinny, bray, snort

movement (motion) ~~ walk, trot, canter, gallop

The four species of zebra are:  plains zebra or common zebra; Grevy’s zebra; Cape mountain zebra; and Hartmann’s mountain zebra.

Special Features:

The zebra is the national animal (?) and is also depicted on the coat-of-arms of Botswana, Africa!

The fascinating feature of the zebra is the stripes.  Though there are some other animals with stripes on their bodies, no other animal has stripes all over its body as the zebra.  Some animal experts believe that the stripes on a zebra help it to hide from its predators (camouflage), or at least, confuse them while running away, especially the lion which is supposed to be colour blind, and some others are in the opinion that the stripes reflect the sun’s heat and help the zebra to withstand the solar radiation.

confusing stripes

Though the patterns of stripes on all zebra look the same for an ordinary observer, each individual zebra has a pattern of its own, just as a person has his/her own fingerprints that are different from another person – even his/her own mother, father, brother or sister!!

The most important and useful road sign, the ‘zebra crossing’, is named after the stripes of the zebra!  (‘zebra crossing’ = a set of wide black and white stripes marked on a road where pedestrians (people using the road or street on foot) are free to cross the road because at this sign the motor traffic must stop and allow the pedestrians to cross the road safely)

zebra-crossing

Most of the non-African people see these fascinating animals either in zoos or in international circuses!!

Though most members of the horse family are domesticated, the zebra has never been domesticated.  From time to time, several people have tried to domesticate the zebra, but have never been successful!

Even the Romans, who called the zebra “hippotigris” (‘tiger horse’ or ‘horse tiger’),  trained them to pull two-wheeled carts for showing in circuses, but never actually used them as pack animal!

There have been, however, some people in recent times who trained and used zebra to pull carts and to ride on, but only for a short period of time and just for show purpose.

zebra skin items

Zebra have been hunted for their meat and skin.  The meat is a local delicacy, i.e. local people eat the meat on special occasions, and the skin in its complete form is used as an item of decoration, and is also made into leather items, such as bags, belts, straps, etc.

The zebra has been featured in several stories, fables, comics, cartoons, animated films and in feature films!

The name and the picture of the fascinating zebra is used for several corporations and business establishments!

[Several other entirely unrelated, but having stripes, animals also have the word ‘zebra’ in their names.  They are: ‘zebra caterpillar’ and ‘zebra opossum’ or ‘zebra wolf’ (also called ‘thylacine’ or ‘Tasmanian wolf’).]

Figures of Speech:

zebra (noun)  =  a referee in a football game

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