SOME MOUNTAIN ZEBRA FACTS
KING OF THE MOUNTAINS
The Mountain Zebra or Hartmann’s Zebra is a stocky and strong animal belonging to the equine family.
Its cousin, the Plains Zebra or Burchell’s is slightly smaller and prefers to live on the open plains and
savannah areas of Africa. There are differences between the two species, but it is difficult to spot if you don’t
know the animals very well.
Two major differences are:
Mountain Zebra have a much bigger dewlap than Burchells
Mountain Zebra also have some shadow stripes between the black and white stripes.
As the heading suggests, the Mountain Zebra is at home in the most rugged and
inaccessible mountains you can think of!
In Namibia, the Namib Naukluft Park has the highest number of Mountain Zebra living in a game park. On
commercial farm land there are also huge numbers of Mountain Zebra. To give an accurate number or amount of these
animals would be highly impossible and wildly inaccurate.
Game counts as done by Rangers and other like minded people just cannot get accurate numbers for this species
that frequent the high roads in the mountains.
Zebra’s are very sociable animals, and have a well defined herd structure. Usually, but not always, a herd
is led by a mare. The last animal in the herd is then usually a stallion. Foals are well protected by
the herd, and a Zebra packs a nasty kick, and can bite as well.
Predators in the mountain include leopards and spotted hyenas.
Zebra’s are grazers. Zebra, both mountain and plain, are very destructive grazers due to the reason that they do
not bite off the grass at the roots, but rather pull out the whole clump of grass.
This has led to some serious trouble between local farmers and mountain zebra. So much so that the number
of Mountain Zebra in Namibia dwindled to alarmingly low numbers. To counter this, the Government of Namibia,
established a sanctuary just for this specie.
The Naukluft Mountains were commercial farmland that was purchased by the government, and then made part of the
already existing Namib Park.
Today the Mountain Zebra numbers in this part of Namibia are very large, and it is a healthy population that is
present in and around the Naukluft Mountains.
If you do the 4 or 8 day Naukluft Hike, many of the paths you will follow, are old or still used Mountain Zebra
footpaths. Once on these well trodden footpaths, you will be amazed at how these animals find their way
around.
Never will you see that Zebra climb straight up a mountain, by instinct they always follow the easier route, and
that of course helps a lot when hiking yourself.
Once spotted, it is a real pleasure to watch these lovely beasts in their natural environment. At once you can see
that they are completely home in their environment. With ease they will trot away over very rocky ground without
ever losing their footing or stride.
Contact us to arrange your Namibia safari
and have the chance to see these animals in the wild.
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