The Zebra

If one is a tourist in any Kenyan park, one can not miss to have a glimpse of the Zebra with locals suggesting in jest that it is the African version of the horse. I do not know how this can be so considering that the horse is the strongest animal living. So what are the traits of a zebra, particularly a Kenyan Zebra (if there is anything like an African horse?).
Zebras were the second lineage to diverge from the earliest proto-horses, after the asses, around 4 million years ago. Grevy's zebra (a species of the zebras) is believed to have been the first zebra species to emerge. The ancestors of the Equus horses are believed to have been striped, and zebras must have retained the stripes of their ancestors due to their advantage for social animals in tropical environments. Extensive stripes would be of little use to equids that live in low densities in deserts (like asses and some horses) or ones that live in colder climates with shaggy coats and annual shading (like some horses).
There are three species of zebra that still occur in Africa, two of which are found in East Africa. The most numerous and widespread species in the east is Burchell's, also known as the common or plains zebra. The other is Grevy's zebra (The long-legged Grevy's zebra, the biggest of the wild equids, is taller and heavier than the Burchell's, with a massive head and large ears.), named for Jules Grevy, a president of France in the 1880s who received one from Abyssinia as a gift, and now found mostly in northern Kenya. (The third species, Equids zebra, is the mountain zebra, found in southern and southwestern Africa.)
Zebras are important prey for lions and hyenas, and to a lesser extent, for hunting dogs, leopards and cheetahs. When a family group is attacked, the members form a semicircle, face the predator and watch it, ready to bite or strike should the attack continue. If one of the family is injured, the rest will often encircle it to protect it from further attack. Like many species of East Africa’s grazing animals, the Burchell's zebra is most in danger of habitat loss and competition for water with livestock.
As a way of protecting itself, zebras have a camouflaging mechanism. This is accomplished in several ways. First, the vertical striping helps the zebra hide in grass, while seeming absurd at first glance, considering that grass is neither white nor black, it is supposed to be effective against the zebra's main predator, the lion, which is color blind. Theoretically, a zebra standing still in tall grass may not be noticed at all by a lion. Additionally, since zebras are herd animals, the stripes may help to confuse predators - a number of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large animal, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out any single zebra to attack
Lastly to protect the young ones, are protected by the mother keeps all other zebras (even the members of her family) away from the foal for 2 or 3 days, until it learns to recognize her by sight, voice and smell. It would be advisable as a human to keep off young foals as the mother fiercely protects it.

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