The largest of the zebra species, Grevy’s zebra have thicker stripes and bigger ears than other zebras. Their stripes are a very distinctive black and white which appear all over the zebra’s body, even on their mane and ears. They have about 80 stripes in all. They are the most threatened of the Zebra species with fewer than 2,500 remaining in the wild, in Northern Kenya and Ethiopia.
Fossils that have been found in China, Uzbekistan, and South Africa, suggest that ancestral forms of Grevy’s zebras were once widespread in Africa and Eurasia.
The president of France, Jules Grevy, was given a zebra as a gift from the King of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) way back in 1882. It was realized by a zoologist that this type of zebra was different from others and therefore the species was named after the President.
Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
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