Plains Zebra
Equus quagga · Mammals
Zebra in line
Masai Mara, 20 February 2020
Zebras in single file across the Mara, the foals tucked between adults, which is how a family moves on the open plain where anything can see them. Black and white, which for once needs no defending.
Every animal's stripe pattern is unique, and there is reasonable evidence they know one another by it. A foal learns its mother's pattern in its first days, and will follow the wrong stripes if it hasn't.
Plains Zebra
Masai Mara, 19 February 2020
A Plains Zebra under flat-topped acacias in the Masai Mara, with a horizon doing very little - the Mara at its most recognisable. Zebras are grazers of the grasslands of East and Southern Africa, and the Mara's resident herds are joined each year by the migration from the Serengeti.
What the stripes are for is still not settled. Camouflage, predator confusion and individual recognition have all been argued and largely taken apart. The best current evidence is that they deter biting flies, which struggle to land on strongly striped surfaces - and given what tsetse and horseflies carry, that would be reason enough on its own.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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