Zebra - Equus burchelli

The Burchell's Zebra grazes two-thirds of the day on red oat grass, leaves, bark, roots and stems. Excellent hearing and vision help a zebra to keep alert for predators like lions and hyenas. Zebras stay in family groups of a stallion, or male, and several mares, but different families will come together in huge herds of hundreds of zebras. Herds will mingle with wildebeests, ostriches, and antelope while they graze, and even come to depend on them as additional protection against predators! Zebras are always busy and alert, and very noisy. Impressive annual migrations occur between Linyanti (winter) through Savuti to Mababe (summer) where they normally foal and from Nxai Pan (summer) to Makgadikgadi (winter). Numbers in the southern migration were badly affected by the drought of the 1980's from which they have not yet recovered. Nevertheless, the sight of thousands of migrating zebra on the flat grasslands of Savuti or the Makgadikgadi is a spectacular sight.