Zebra | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants

Zebras are sturdy, spirited individuals that offer a study in contrasts beyond their black and white stripes. They're willful and playful, social and standoffish, resilient and vulnerable. For some, life in a herd can be complex, yet they also find safety in numbers. They are prey for predators, but they're also quite capable defenders.

Zebras are equids, members of the horse family. They have excellent hearing and eyesight and can run more than 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour). They also have a powerful kick that can cause serious injury to a predator, like a lion, a hyena, or an African wild dog. Usually the lead male of the herd, called a stallion, sounds the alarm if danger is spotted and stays at the back of the group to defend against predators if necessary, while mares (females) and foals (young) run away.

Zebras often trot when moving to new pastures, which is a fairly fast but easy gait for them to use over the long distances they may have to travel. Their hard hooves are designed to withstand the impact of their body weight and to run easily over rocky ground. When resting at night, zebras lie down while one stands watch to prevent an ambush.

Stripes: White with black or black with white? This is one of the most popular questions about zebras. Zebras are generally thought to have white coats with black (or sometimes brown) stripes. That's because if you look at most zebras, their stripes end on their belly and toward the inside of their legs, and the rest of their body is all white. However, some zebras are born with genetic variations that make them all black with white stripes, or mostly dark with a striped pattern on just part of their coats. And as it turns out, zebras have black skin underneath their hair. So it depends on how you look at it!

A zebra's stripes serve as a form of protection from predators. When zebras gather together, their overlapping stripes make it hard for a lion or leopard to pick out one zebra to chase. Zebra stripes are unique to each individual—a fact that helps researchers identify individual zebras.

At first it might seem like a zebra is a zebra, but there are three different species: plains, mountain, and Grevy’s zebras. Different zebra species have different types of stripes, from narrow to wide. In fact, the farther south on the African plains you travel, the farther apart the stripes on zebras get! All zebras have the same basic body type, however—a large head, sturdy neck, long legs, a dorsal stripe along the spine and down a tasseled tail, and a bristly mane. No zebra, or other wild equid, has a forelock.

Grevy’s zebras are the largest, weighing from 770 to 990 pounds (350 to 450 kilograms) and measuring up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the shoulder. Their thick necks and large, round ears give them the most mule-like physique. Grevy’s zebras also have the thinnest stripes, extending all the way down to their white belly. On their hindquarters, the stripes are vertical until above their hind legs.

Mountain zebras have vertical stripes on their neck and torso, which graduate to wider—and fewer—horizontal stripes on their haunches. They have a gridiron pattern on their rump, and their white underside has a dark stripe that runs the length of their belly. Mountain zebras also have a distinctive dewlap on their throat that looks a bit like an Adam’s apple.

Plains zebras are the most abundant and the smallest of the three zebra species. Some subspecies have a stripe pattern different from all others: brownish “shadow” stripes between the black stripes on their coat.