Burchell's zebra
| Burchell's zebra | |
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Etosha National Park, Namibia
One or two shadow stripes rest between the bold, broad stripes on the haunch, a feature unique to the Burchell's or Damara zebra |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | Equidae |
| Genus: | Equus |
| Subgenus: | Hippotigris |
| Species: | E. quagga |
| Subspecies: | E. q. burchellii |
| Trinomial name | |
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Equus quagga burchellii Gray, 1824 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Equus quagga antiquorum |
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One or two shadow stripes rest between the bold, broad stripes on the haunch, a feature unique to the Burchell's or Damara zebra
Equus quagga antiquorum
(Smith, 1841)
Equus quagga zebroides
(Lesson, 1827)
Burchell's zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) is a southern subspecies of the plains zebra. It is named after the British explorer and naturalist William John Burchell. Common names include bontequagga, Damara zebra, and Zululand zebra (Gray, 1824).
Burchell's zebra is the only subspecies of zebra which may be legally farmed for human consumption in the UK.
Like most plains zebras, females and males are relatively the same size. Year-round reproduction observed in this subspecies in Etosha National Park, Namibia, concludes synchronization of a time budget between males and females, possibly explaining the lack of sexual dimorphism.
Damara zebras are described as being striped on the head, the neck, and the flanks, and sparsely down the upper segments of the limbs then fading to white. One or two shadow stripes rest between the bold, broad stripes on the haunch. This main, distinguishing characteristic sets the Zuzuland Zebra apart from the other subspecies. Gray (1824), observed a distinct dorsal line, the tail only bristly at the end, and the body distinctly white. The dorsal line is narrow and becomes gradually broader in the hinder part, distinctly margined with white on each side.
Formerly, the Burchell's zebra range was centered north of the Vaal/Orange river system, extending northwest via southern Botswana to Etosha and the Kaokoveld, and southeast to Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal. Now extinct in the middle portion, it survives at the northwestern and southeastern ends of the distribution.
Burchell's zebra migrates the longest distance of any terrestrial animal in Africa, traveling 160 miles one way. They migrate from the Chobe River in Namibia to Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana. Their migration follows a straight north–south route almost entirely within the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA).
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Wikipedia