Zebra, Kruger Africa

I made it through the night without any critters crawling or slithers around my cabin and before I hit the ground running, I checked my boots for any spiders making themselves at home in there. 

As the gates opened just before daybreak, I headed north to Nhlowa Road (aka S28) with a brief stop at Gezantombi Watergat (waterhole). Scanning the area, I was hoping for a viewing, as animals are most active early in the morning or late afternoon, when the temperature is more palatable than the midday sun. The southern part of the park gets particularly hot during the summer season with temperatures soaring as high as 140°F (40°C) with a great deal of humidity. 

Lucking out this time, I took a right turn onto the S28, a narrow gravel road and a mere 1.3mi (2km) later, I chanced upon my first sighting.  To my left was a dazzle of zebras and to my right, albeit in the distance, was a herd of wildebeest.

Commonly referred to as a ‘herd’ or ‘zeal’, a group of zebras is also known as a ‘dazzle’, which is a curious description with a very logical explanation. Apparently, it is due to the ‘dazzle motion effect’. When zebras move together, their pattern makes it difficult for a predator to focus on an individual target and thereby miscalculate the speed and direction taken by the prey. The military was quite fascinated with that theory, so much so that in the early 20th century (predominantly in WW1), US and UK warships were painted in ‘motion dazzle’ patterns in an attempt to confuse their enemies by making it difficult to gauge the ship’s size, speed, and direction. How effective they were remains questionable but by WW2 the practice began to fall out of favour. 

Zebras are hard-wired to be wild, unlike their domesticated cousins, the horse and the donkey. Sometime in the late 19th century, humans attempted to domesticate zebras and use them for transportation, but the zebras continuously escaped their enclosures and thwarted their training. Clearly those strong survival instincts could not be tamed. 

Of the three zebra species – Plains, Mountain and Grevy – the ‘Plains’ is the one most commonly found in the park. Its long distant relative, the quagga, was endemic to South Africa until it was hunted into extinction by 1878. The quagga was a fascinating species as its brown and white coat pattern was zebra-like at the front and horse-like at the back. This also raises the question whether a zebra’s stripe is black and white or white and black. Scientific research concluded that although a zebra’s belly is white, the skin beneath the hair is actually black. As such, the zebra is considered to be black with white stripes (although some debate continues) and the stripe patterns are like fingerprints because they are unique to each one of them.

Moving on from the zebras, I kept my eyes peeled on these vast open plains and even up in the trees, seriously hoping I would see a big cat lazing on a branch. It wasn’t long though before I laid my eyes on a small herd of antelopes in the distance.

This was a good start to my safari experience. What’ll be next?