Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Zebras are part of the horse family.
They have stripes.
Zebras eat grass.
They live in Africa.
A baby Zebra is a foal. Its mother is a mare and its father is a stallion.

Zebras are herbivores, which means they eat only plants. They have very mobile lips which grip a tuft of grass while their front teeth cut it off. Their back teeth (molars) grind the grass.There is little nutrition in grass, and zebras are not ruminants like giraffe so they need to eat a lot in order to get enough nutrition. This means they graze for most of the day.

Life Cycle
A mare gives birth to a foal about 12 months after mating with a male. For at least two days, the mother keeps other zebras away from her newborn foal so that they learn to recognise each other's patterns. Foals have legs almost as long as an adult's so that one hour after birth it is able to run fast enough to keep up with the herd. Foals stay close to their mothers for protection. They suckle milk from their mothers.