Zebra on the plains

I've always wanted to take one of those "lone animal on the plains" photos and got the opportunity in Addo Elephant National Park the other day.  Unfortunately for me I was on a moving open vehicle with nowhere to steady my camera. Hence the fact that its not a crisp photo.  At the time I also though how awesome it would be to have a proper DSLR camera with a big lens and not just my little super zoom.  Maybe some day.

 

"Psssst, I'm thinking sponsorship opportunity with links and a sidebar advert".

Grazing in the late afternoon sun

A Burchell's Zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) or just Plains Zebra as they are apparently being referred to now, grazing in the late afternoon sun in the Addo Elephant National Park.

Zebras

Donkeys in pajamas must be one of the animals that visitors to game reserves love seeing most.  The Burchell's Zebra is the most common zebra that you will find in the game reserves of the Eastern Cape.  They are identifiable by the fact that the stripes go all the way underneath their stomachs and by the brownish phantom stripes visible on their wide white stripes.

The endangered Cape Mountain Zebra are found only on a few game reserves in the province.  They have wide black stripes with much thinner white inter spaces than the Burchell Zebra.  The stripes also don't go all the way under their stomachs.

Game drive at Bucklands

During our wonderful stay at Bucklands Private Game Reserve during the Mini vs Maxi trip we had the opportunity to go on two game drives.  The first one starting at about 15:00ish (sorry, but I just can't remember the exact time) in the afternoon with the other one early the next morning.  As we were the only ones at the lodge for the night we had a game drive vehicle all to ourselves.  Our ranger, Werner, must be one of the most knowledgeable ranger I've ever had on a game drive.  He also literally went out his way to find us as much as possible during the drive and when there was nothing to see he was telling us about trees, plants and the history of the area.  Some of the game we saw on the drive included:

Blesbuck

Burchell's Zebra

Ostrich

Kudu

Giraffe

And Homo sapiens, also known as the visitors staying at the Luxury Tented Camp.

Burchell's Zebra

On our visit to Addo Elephant National Park the other day we found a couple of Burchell's Zebra browsing on an open field just past the Marion Brie waterhole. The Burchell's Zebra is the most common zebra in South Africa and are normally found in short grassland areas within savanna woodlands and grassland plains. The body stripes (each individual have a unique set of stripes, very much like fingerprints) of the Burchell's Zebra is less numerous and broader than that of the Cape Mountain Zebra with less prominent stripes on their legs. The Burchell's Zebra also has a distinctive brown phantom stripe on their white stripes.

A foal is born after a gestation period of 360 - 390 days. When it is born the mother will first take it away from the rest of the herd so that the foal can get used to her unique stripes and sent and will be able to identify her. Only then will she go and introduce it to the rest of the herd. The stripes are used for camouflage either in the bush or when the group is in its heard. With all the stripes moving around a lion wouldn't be able to focus on one individual and they have a better chance of escaping.

Donkey in pajamas

For some reason people always like seeing zebra. When I used to guide tourists always had that extra bit of excitement in their tone when I showed them zebras. The common zebra around here is the Burchell's Zebra. They way to recognise a Burchell's Zebra is by the brown phantom stripe they have on the white stripes.

I have a question for you today. Other than turning it on its back to look, how do you see the difference between a male and female zebra?

Answer: The males are black with white stripes and the females are white with black stripes. Or is it the other way around?

Two headed Zebra?

Tonight I'm just having some fun. On one of the game drives last week I took a pic of a two headed zebra. Well, not really. Duh... But the moment I took the photo I saw the potential on what some photo shop work can do to the pic. Alas, I don't have Photoshop. I really need to get it. So I used Coral Photo-Paint and this is the result. Its not something I've done much of before, but its not a bad job even if I have to say so myself.

Above is the phenomenon of the two headed zebra (no lion will ever sneak up on him) and below is the original picture.