Africa Wild

Good thread, guys!

Mountain Zebras of MZNP

Great pics Duke

Interesting how the male mountain Zebra have that prominent dewlap does anyone know the specific purpose?
I know for instance that the Eland’s dewlap assists in controlling thermoregulation particularly in the arid areas in which they are found, does this perform a similar function?

According to Mammals of Africa (Jonathan Kingdon, et al.) the function of the dewlap is unknown.


Family: Equidae
Zebras belong to the Equid (horse) family of the order Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates), a group of herbivores that also includes rhinoceroses and tapirs. The first horses appeared in the early Eocene of North America, around 56 million years ago. They were the size of small dogs and had several toes on each foot, unlike the single hoofs of modern horses. These early horses closely resembled the ancestors of rhinos and tapirs. They were browsers, and lived in forests and savannas. During the Miocene (25-8 mya) climate change led to a reduction in the amount of forest cover and an increase in grassland. This was a time of great evolutionary change for the early equids, with many groups evolving larger body sizes and adapting to a grazing lifestyle. Horse diversity peaked in the mid-Miocene (11-9.5 mya), with more than a dozen different genera evolving of many different sizes.

Since that time horse diversity has gradually decreased, with all forms becoming extinct with the exception of the modern horse genus, Equus. This genus first evolved during the North American Pliocene (4.5 to 1.8 million years ago). Members of this successful genus spread throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and South America during the first major glaciations of the late Pliocene (2.6 mya). However, in the late Pleistocene (around 12,000 years ago) a set of devastating extinctions killed off the horses, along with most other large mammals in North and South America. Today, wild horses are found only in parts of Africa and Asia. They are classified into four main groups within the genus Equus:

Zebras:
- Grévy’s zebra (Equus grevyi): Grévy's Zebra is confined to the Horn of Africa, specifically Ethiopia and Kenya.
- Burchell's zebra (Equus burchelli): Plains Zebra range from southern Sudan and southern Ethiopia, east of the Nile River, to southern Angola and northern Namibia and northern South Africa
- Mountain zebra (Equus zebra): Namibia and South Africa.

Asiatic wild asses:
- Kulan and onager (Equus hemionus): Today, the most abundant subpopulation of the species occurs in the southern part of Mongolia and adjacent northern China. The species also survives as isolated populations in the Rann of Kutch (India), the Badkhyz Preserve (Turkmenistan) and at Touran National Park and Bahramgor Reserve (Iran).
- Kiang (Equus kiang): The distribution of this species is centered on the Tibetan Plateau between 2,700 and 5,400m asl. Most of the distribution is in China, but the species extends into northern parts of Pakistan, India, Nepal and possibly Bhutan.

African wild asses:
- African wild ass (Equus asinus): Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia

True horses:
- Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii): The last wild population of Przewalski’s Horse survived until recently in southwestern Mongolia and adjacent Gansu, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia (China).

Thanks Toko, very comprehensive evolutionary history.
One can only assume that the dewlap had a specific function within the species at some point in it's historical or genetic past?

Zebras in Addo Elephant Park

Zebra at home (Marloth Park)

Presenting her little one

The little one is very sweet!

Lovely pics everyone.

All great pics Wildies, love the "home" stripes too...