Just out of interest ...

Note the extremely clear and defined stripes on these Zambian Zebra ... NONE of those horrible shadow stripes ...



Regards, Peter in NZ

Peter,

Have you been playing around with Photoshop?

Nice zeeebra.

I saw these in Zambia as well. I was told they were a variant of the Burchell's zebra.

On that Zambian zebra, notice the compact striping on the front quarters and neck area and the wide spaced striping on the hind quarters (in addition to no shadow stripes).

Compare it to the South African and Selous zebra.

South African Zebra:


South African Zebra:


South African Zebra:


Selous Zebra:


Regards,

Terry

As an interesting side note, I read recently on a site that the Burchells Zebra is no more. They disappeared about the beginning of the 20th century. The Zebra hunted in the south is the Chapman's Zebra.

The plains zebra I shot in Masailand, Tanzania exhibit the same lack of shdow stripes. I understand they are genetically identical to the Burchell's zebra with shadow stripes you find further south in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Here are pictures of my Tanzanian zebra.....


And pictures of one of the zebra I took a few years ago in South Africa.......


Sorry for the poor quality of the second picture but you can clearly see they have very similar characteristics with the exceptions of shadow stripes!

However, all zebra are fun to hunt and tough to bring down! One of my favorite hunts was in Namibia in 1999 for Hartman's Mountain Zebra. A unique trophy in unusual terrain!

Oh Oh I like the shadow stripes!

Here's what Estes says in The Safari Companion:

Plains or Burchell's zebra, Equus burchelli
Subspecies of the plains zebra:
1. Grant's or Boehm's zebra
2. Chapman's zebra
3. Selous zebra
4. Burchell's zebra

Mountain zebra, Equus zebra
Subspecies of the mountain zebra:
1. Cape mountain zebra
2. Hartmann's mountain zebra

Grevy's zebra, Equus grevyi

Striped horse (plains and mountain zebras)
Striped ass (Grevy's zebra)

Regards,

Terry

From the internet:

There are three species of zebra, one of which is the Grevy's (Equus grevyi). The other two are the common zebra (Equus burchelli) and the mountain zebra (Equua zebra). The common zebra is widely distributed throughout southern and eastern Africa, south of the Sahara. This species displays differences in markings because of its wide distribution and this once resulted in the assumption that there were a great many different species of zebra in Africa. Today it is generally accepted that there are four races of common zebra. These are Grant's zebra (Equus burchelli boehmi), Chapman's zebra (Equus burchelli antiquuorum), Selous' zebra (Equus burchelli borensis) and the true Burchell's zebra (Equus burchelli burchelli), which is now an extinct race.

Two subspecies of mountain zebra are recognized, living in southern Africa. These are Hartmann's zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) and the Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra) which is endangered-in 1937 this subspecies was reduced to only 45 individuals as a result of relentless hunting by farmers. The 45 animals were given protection in a national park in South Africa and their numbers have now increased to about 500.

A site describing the different zebra:
ZEBRA PAGE

Just to confuse you even more as to the taxonomy of the zebra, read this Quagga

None of these three sources are in 100% agreement on the races (subspecies) of plains zebra.

Regards,

Terry

This thing between splitters & groupers confuses me a little (actually a lot!).....But according to a couple of my books the Zebra's in Tanzania are actually Equus Burchelli Johnstoni and the ones in South Africa are Equus Burchelli Burchelli. Dob't know about Zambia though.

here's a "clean" Burchell's Zebra I took in Zimbabwe

Steve- The "lumpers and splitteres" have always been at odds. It seems that one or the other comes into vouge for awhile, then the trend switches 180 degrees. In Whitetail Deer, Ecology and Management, the authors list THIRTY separate whitetail sub-species!!

Considering that every zebra I ever tried to get close to 'split', giving me my 'lumps', I'm not going to be choosy if something relative unscarred show up in my sights!