Zebra sleep standing up and take 'watches' during sleep to look out for predators.Zebra recognize each other by their different stripe patterns.Female foals remain with their natal herd until they join an unrelated male, whereas male foals leave their mother when she has another foal to join a bachelor herd of other young males. Female zebra are pregnant for 12 to 14 months and give birth to one foal. The stallion that first mates with the female is the one she will remain with. Other males may also attempt to steal her. He must challenge, fight and subdue her father to 'win' the female, who will then join him.
Male zebra 'acquire' a young female by approaching her while in her family herd when she first reaches sexual maturity. Females within a harem have a hierarchy depending on how long they have been with the stallion the female that joined the stallion first is the alpha female. Young males that have no yet gained their own harem live in 'bachelor herds'. Plains zebra live in cohesive herds in the wild, which can be composed of several harems that consist of one stallion, several females and their young offspring. When in National Parks, there are concerted efforts to prevent poaching. Many zebra live within National Parks where they are protected, but they are a far-ranging species and may move out of protected areas during migrations. The zebra also rely on migration paths, which have been known to become blocked by man made fences and walls, preventing them from reaching areas with food and water during the dry season. This remains a problem for others, all of which are desirable to hunters for their skins. Excessive hunting has pushed one subspecies of plains zebra (the quagga) to extinction. The species' population is stable, but near threatened status.
Males and females can both be 3.6ft to 4.8ft in height, and between 7.2ft and 8.2ft in length, although males are generally 10% larger than females. Plains zebra have the black and white stripes famous of all zebra, but are smaller than Grevy's zebra and larger than mountain zebra. The species is divided into six subspecies, separated due to different features, usually varying strip patterns, and lack of interbreeding between groups. The plains zebra (or Equus quagga) is native to Eastern and Southern Africa, preferring to live in easy reach of water sources on the savannah. The Plains Zebra ( Equus quagga) is a mid-sized African ungulate featured in the Standard Edition of Planet Zoo.
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