New equine collection in the making?
- Thread starter kiang
- Start date
How are zebras black with white stripes? Is it to do with skin colour? I also thought it was the other way round as the belly tends to be whiter.
I thought there were three species, with two subspp of E. zebra and at least 4 extant subspp of E. burchelli
Zebras are black with white stripes....... It is the pigment of their skin that is black, making them black with white stripes. However in the Mount Kenya game reserve there are a group of white zebra and spotted in Etosha has been black zebra!
As far as the types of zebra, there are 4....... Grevy's (Equus grevyi)
Cape Mountain (Equus zebra zebra) (none in captivity) Hartmann's zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) These are all monotypic. Then there is the Plains zebras and depending upon who's taxonomy you follow will depend on how many sub species you recognise.
As far as the types of zebra, there are 4....... Grevy's (Equus grevyi)
Cape Mountain (Equus zebra zebra) (none in captivity) Hartmann's zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) These are all monotypic. Then there is the Plains zebras and depending upon who's taxonomy you follow will depend on how many sub species you recognise.
I could start a long debate here about black-with-white-stripes versus white-with-black-stripes but I can't be bothered; however your second paragraph is somewhat confused - there are three species of zebra (Grevy's, mountain, and plains). The mountain zebra has two subspecies, namely E. zebra zebra and E. z. hartmannae - given that even you just called them by their subspecific names I'm not sure why you then state them to be monotypic!?
Thank you Chlidonias, that is what I was saying. Whether one is talking about species or subspecies, there certainly aren't 4 types of zebra.
As you say a subspecies can't be referred to as monotypic.
they have been split before, but it was never widely accepted due to the genetic distinctions being so slight that anything more than subspecific separation is clearly unwarranted
This is the question I had asked before then answered myself. And yes, this is the answer I got. If anyone is interested this was what I found:
SpringerLink - Journal Article
Depending upon which taxonomy you follow will depend on 3 or 4 types of zebras and as I am lucky enough to have met and discussed this matter with Prof Colin Groves, it is his Taxonomy I follow therefore believing the 4 different types of zebra.
And as for the skin colour, I am not sure what your debate is Chlidonias but taken from a fresh skin of a zebra, and when you look closely at the skin and hair on a live zebra the skin colour is black.
At Longleat there is/was a zebra with hair loss and it could be clearly seen that the skin was black.
I follow his treatises too (watch his work on deer, some gazellines and wild ass/equids).
He is a known splitter though (as you will acknowledge splitters and lumpers). But when in doubt, I rather split than lump (for lack of evidence of scientific understanding).
Just to clarify, Groves splits the extinct Quagga (E. quagga) from the Plains Zebra (E. burchellii). The Mountain Zebra is still regarded as a single species with two subspecies.
The following photograph in the gallery solves the question of Zebra skin colour:
http://www.zoochat.com/206/longleat-hair-loss-zebra-38254/
From New Investigations on the Taxonomy of Zebras Genus Equus, subgenus Hippotigris. by Colin Groves and Cathy Bell, published in Mammalian Biology, 2003:
E.z.zebra exhibits sexual dimorphism, with females larger than males, while E.z.hartmannae does not. The two taxa separate with 100% accuracy. Externally, the pelage of zebra and hartmannae differs in the ratio of the width of the black stripes and white interspaces: in hartmannae the stripes are thin, the interspaces much wider, while in zebra the opposite is the case and we know of no overlaps.
E.z.zebra is found in the southern Cape and hartmannae in coastal Namibia and southern Angola: they are thus totally allopatric, and there is no possibility of testing their status but the Biological Species Concept (Mayr 1942), even if we regarded it as appropriate. We propose here to adopt the Phylogenetic Species Concept of Craycraft (1983), under which the criterion is diagnosability, i.e. genetic isolation rather than reproductive isolation as such. Given the evidence that they are 100% distinct, we suggest that the two subspecies are better classified as separate species, E.zebra and E.hartmannae.
Groves and Bell are both widely regarded as leaders in the field of mammalian taxonomy (with their own areas of expertise). Though the theory of four extant species may not be a very palatable prospect, I wouldn't be prepared to argue with either of these two authorities. I have never seen a Cape Mountain Zebra so can claim no authority on them -and I would hazard a guess that the majority of Zoochat members haven't either.
However, given that this reference appears to be one of only very few that splits the two Mountain Zebras into separate species I would suggest that either taxonomy is valid until definitive tests can be carried out.
In the same paper Groves and Bell keep the Quagga as E.quagga quagga i.e. a subspecies of Plains Zebra though Grubb (in Mammal Species of the World - A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Ed. Wilson and Reeder, 2005) splits it as a separate species and continues to use the traditional classification for Mountain Zebras.
So there really is no answer one way or the other, just individual opinions.
What is you reference for this, Rob?
Sorry, my mistake; I was referring to Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (2005). Colin Groves contributed many chapters to this book, but it was actually Peter Grubb that authored the chapter on Perissodactyls. For the record, he recognises the following zebra taxa:
Equus burchellii antiquorum
Equus burchellii boehmi
Equus burchellii borensis
Equus burchellii burchellii
Equus burchellii chapmanni
Equus burchellii crawshaii
Equus grevyi
Equus quagga (with a note that splitting burchellii is controversial)
Equus zebra hartmannae
Equus zebra zebra
Someone credible actually recognises borensis? My flabber is officially gasted.
If you regard cape and Hartmann's as distinct species you ought to have called them E. zebra and E. hartmannae in the above post, then at least you would be consistent. Anyway, are you expecting to get any of either?
Regarding skin coloration, would we say that a polar bear is a black bear with white fur?
Good luck with your enterprise btw
If you regard cape and Hartmann's as distinct species you ought to have called them E. zebra and E. hartmannae in the above post, then at least you would be consistent. Anyway, are you expecting to get any of either?
Regarding skin coloration, would we say that a polar bear is a black bear with white fur?
Good luck with your enterprise btw
Thank you for the good luck wish, as you will of noticed my spelling is not great and I am not the best at putting things across in type, as I am quite badly dyslexic!
However I at least know what I am going on about!!! lol and believe it.
As for Polar bears, I have no idea as I don't have any I can get up close with as I can my zebs, neither does my taxidermist friend do polar bears, so have no fresh skins to observe!
I am sure someone will answer your question!!!!!!
Groves (yes, definitely!) had the following to say about maneless zebras in "Horses, Asses and Zebras in the Wild" (1974):
... East African races have shorter, scruffier manes than southern ones. This condition reaches its peak in the entirely maneless zebras that are found on the north-eastern and north-western edges of the range: in Somalia, along the Juba river, and again in a district from the Karamojong region of Uganda in to the southern Sudan. In the Somali population all adults are maneless, but in the Sudan-Uganda population there appear to be maned females. Always, however, the foals have manes; it has been found that in captive animals the mane is shed at sexual maturity, and in maneless zebras it simply fails to regrow. Maneless zebras appear to have white (unstriped) ears, and other differences have been suggested - they may, for example, have more completely striped tails; they may or may not represent a separate geographic race, but since manelessness crops up sporadically throughout East Africa it is not strictly localised.