ZOIE (the zebra)

Enclosed find a picture of Zoie’s relatives,
somewhere in South Africa. Zoie would
like to meet up with them again. She doesn’t
mind taking the long way there. Hopefully,
we geo-cachers can help her along.

Why they are striped is still an unanswered question. Several theories have been put forward but non with absolute certainty. It could be that all the theories are to some extent correct. There are residual stripes on other species of horse such as the Przewalski and the Icelandic it seems possible, to me, that the stripes are the only remaining examples of much more common equine markings.
The stripes are important for identification. A mare will keep her foal from seeing other zebras, even family members, until it has imprinted her stripes to memory, it is one of the main ways by which she will be known to her offspring. Her smell and call being the other important factors. These same identifiers are how family members know each other, with Plains and Mountain zebras families being formed for life. It is the patterns formed by these stripes that modern scientists use to identify individual animals for study. No two zebras having the same markings.
Grazers, zebras are often the first such feeders to use an area, cropping down the longer harder grasses. This clears the ground for other browsers who cannot cope with the conditions until the softer food is uncovered. As they are not competing with each other for foodstuff zebras and other grazers will often form a larger herd together and will heed the warnings of some other types of animal. This also gives protection to all concerned, a hunting carnivore will look for an isolated weaker animal when ever possible.