Africa Wild

My idea is to start here a monthly topic around the HOW, WHAT and WHY questions of wildlife.

For a start I want to look into sexing of mammals for the tricky species. Sexual dimorphism can be absent or subtile for a lot of mammals and perhaps we can learn how to tell males and females if it is not obvious.

I am sure we can all identify a male or female Leopard, Ground Squirrel, Nyala or Impala, and many of us will easily tell apart Giraffe or Buffalo.

But what about Zebra, Oryx, Wildebeest, Hippo etc.

Plains Zebra

Zebras are gregarious animals and live in small family groups, or harems, consisting of one stallion and his mares (sometimes up to six mares).
In each harem the lead mare generally leads the family and decides where they go (although the stallion may direct her if he decides that they need to go elsewhere). The stallion usually follows on behind the harem and protects them from predator attacks or advances and attentions of other male zebras.
Bachelor males either live alone or with groups of other bachelors until they are old enough to challenge a breeding stallion and elope with one of his fillies. These fights can be quite vicious and involve a lot of rearing, kicking and biting.

Zebras exhibit no other clear sexual dimorphism except for males having spade-shaped canines used in fighting.
Male zebras are slightly larger than females, weighing up to 350 kg and can be identified by their much thicker necks and a thin black stripe between the buttocks (the females have a thicker black stripe under the tail). The black part of their rump is much broader and longer on a mare than on a stallion. This dark part is where the anus and the vulva of the mare are located.

That's the theory
Who can post a picture and tell us if we have a bachelor group or a harem group? Or a bum shot where we can see a thin or thick vertical black buttock stripe or a thicker neck?

What an interesting topic.

From the vertical black stripe, this one is definitely a male

He's making it easy for us!!

Great topic Klippies.

I battled to find decent pics taken from behind.

The zebra on the right seems to have a broader stripe than the one on the left.


Again, the one on the right has a broad stripe but it's hard to see the others.

This is not easy!

Going by the heavier build and thicker neck, I would say the one on the left is the male. (I know it was a breeding group because they had a little one with them).

Flutterby wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:25 am I battled to find decent pics taken from behind.

The zebra on the right seems to have a broader stripe than the one on the left.

Note the tail!
Tourists are likely to attribute the loss of a tail to a predator attack, but the far more common cause is another zebra and I am not sure if mares would do it. I'll look into this and find out if there is female fighting in a group.

graham wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:52 pm What an interesting topic.

From the vertical black stripe, this one is definitely a male

It might be what scholars term a confirmation bias, but I think this zebra has a thick neck.

graham

This is not at all easy

Can we use only our own pics?

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:54 am This is not at all easy

Can we use only our own pics?

any pics are good, just credit!