Grevy’s Zebras by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Via Flickr:
A zebra foal can tell his mother apart from other zebras in the herd and knows to stay close to her by memorizing her unique stripe pattern. The memorization happens just after a zebra is born and is called imprinting. Grevy’s zebras have the skinniest stripes of any zebra species; the stripes run all the way down their back to a white belly. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has had 86 Grevy’s zebra births. Each birth at the Safari Park is significant, since the wild Grevy’s zebra population has been ravaged by anthrax outbreaks, dropping its ranks to an estimated wild population of 2,250. San Diego Zoo Global is a member of the Grevy’s Zebra Trust, an independent wildlife conservation organization in Kenya, and its researchers are working with other conservation groups to help preserve the population.