Zebras are considered ungulates which is a hoofed animal. They belong to the Equidae family which is the horse family. The plural for Zebra is Zobrani. Zebras have excellent eyesight and hearing. There are three main zebras: Plains Zebra, Mountain Zebra and Grevy’s Zebra. In South Africa there is a project to bring back the Quagga. It is an extinct subspecies of the Plains Zebra. Zebra’s can run up to 40 miles an hour and baby zebras can run an hour after they are born. In Ancient Rome Grevy’s were called hippotigris and trained to pull carts for the circus. On the Serengeti plains Burch ell’s zebras form migratory herds of tens of thousands! No zebra has exactly the same stripes.
The stripes actually help to confuse its predators along with messing with their depth perception. The habitat of Zebras is Northern Zimbabwe to the Sudan in East Africa. They eat grasses and stems and sheaths. They typically weigh 500-600 pounds. Zebras have excellent eyesight and a great sense of smell. Zebras have long jaws so that when they graze their eyes are still high enough to watch for predators. Their eyes are on the side of their head and zebras have a much wider field of vision. They are dependent on water and need to drink every day, so they don’t go far from watering holes.
They can live as long as 28 years. The male and female are relatively the same size. However, the male’s genitalia are not always visible which makes it difficult to tell the difference. One clear difference is the black vertical stripe between the buttocks. The male has a narrow stripe and the female has a wider stripe. The collective name for a group of zebras is a “dazzle.” There are two different groupings that zebra’s live in. The first is the harem which consists of 1 dominant male and 5-10 females and young.
The second group is the bachelor herd which can vary in size from 3 and up. This herd consists of only males and follow the harems around at a safe distance. Males will occasionally leave their bachelor herds to join the harem and challenge the dominant male for his females. When the males fight there is a lot of kicking and biting until one gives up. Once the new male gets in they will usually kill all the young foals by kicking and biting them to death!
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Fun Facts on Zebras, zebra, zebra facts
When snakes are born with two heads they fight each other for their food. There are 2,700 different species of snakes in the world. The longest snake in Asia is the reticulated python. They can get to 32 feet and 10 inches. The heaviest snake in the world is the Green Anaconda. It can weigh 500lbs and reaches 26 feet. The thread snake and the blind snake are the smallest at around 11cm. The hook nose is the most lethal snake in the world. Its venom is 100 times more potent than the Taipan! A prairie rattlesnake can strike at a speed of 8feet! The fastest snake recorded was the Black Mamba at a speed of 10-12mph.
The biggest snake in captivity is the Burmese Python at 27 feet long and 404 lbs! Some snakes use their venom to kill their prey and others kill their prey using constriction. Snakes will shed their skin as they grow. In Texas, you are more likely to be killed by lightning than snakebite. They have an average of two to three deaths a year from snakebites compared to five to seven for insect bites and eight for lighting. Snakes travel farther north and occur at higher elevation than lizards. They can also adapt to a wider range of environments. There are no snakes found in Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand and many South Sea Islands!
You may think snake skin is clammy or slimy but it is actually smooth and dry although cool to the touch. In Australia the majority of snakes are venomous almost 80%. A rattlesnake can’t hear their own rattles. Snakes have the advantage of not having to eat food very often. They have a slow metabolism. They can eat once a week and from between 8-10 times a year. Some can actually fast for long periods. Snakes are known to eat their own species usually smaller then themselves. Some snakes can actually see heat using thermal pits in their lower jaw. Sea snakes live in the ocean but still need to surface in order to breath.
The King Cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. The largest recorded specimen was kept at the London Zoo. It was 18 feet and 9 inches long! From 1951 to 1965 a Bernard Keyter a supervisor at the South African Institute milked 780,000 venomous snakes and got 870 gallons of venom but was never bitten!
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The Water Buffalo or Asian buffalo is often called the largest member of the Bovini tribe. That tribe includes yak, bison, African buffalo and species of wild cattle. They stand 5-6 feet tall at the shoulder and have gray-black coats. Males carry enormous horns close to 5 feet long with deep ridges on their surfaces. Females are smaller with horns that are smaller too. Water buffalo spend a lot of the day in muddy waters in Asia and subtropical forests. Their hoofed feet prevent them from sinking into the mud and allow them to move around in the swamps. The swamps provide good cover and rich aquatic plants to forage on and water buffalo prefer to feed on grass and herbs.
The females usually produce calves every other year. Young bulls remain with the herd for three years then they go on to form small male only herds. Water buffalo have been domesticated for over 5,000 years. They have helped with humanities survival with their meat, horns, hides, milk, butterfat and ploughing and transporting abilities. Wild buffalo are endangered and live in small numbers in protected areas stretching across India, Nepal and Bhutan and Thailand. The Latin name for them Bison bison and they are an American icon. In Europe they is a closely related species called the Bison bonasus. This species called the winet are endangered and confined to zoos.
There is a buffalo in Africa that is not only a different species but a separate genus called Syncerus Caffer. In the South there is a species called the Cape buffalo. The African buffalo has upturned horns which makes them very dangerous to humans. These buffalo can reach the speed of a horse at around 30mph! In Asia there is the water buffalo-bubalus bubalis. These are docile buffalo and can be farmed and eaten for their meat. Their milk and hide can also be used. Buffalo are important to Native American tribes. Bison is a curious word in that the plural is the same as the singular. Most dictionaries accept Buffalos or Buffalo as the plural! The old American 5 cent piece is called the “Buffalo Nickel.”
The locals in Hampshire, UK have been told not to approach six missing water buffalo because they can spray dung across large distances! They have been increasingly used in the UK for specialty cheeses, milk and yogurts.
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Fun Facts on Water Buffalo, water buffalo