I am Kibanzao the zebra. I am known for the beautiful black and white stripes that come from the melanin distribution on my coat. By the way, each of us have our own pattern, almost like a human’s fingerprint even though we look very similar from a distance. Sometimes this helps our caregivers identify us, and these stripes help us scare away pesky insects which can be really harmful and even lethal. Our stripes set us apart from horses too, even though we do belong to the same species.
The Zebras housed at Al Ain Zoo like me belong to the Grant’s zebras subspecies and we originally came from the grasslands of East and South Africa. The Zoo started housing zebras in 1984 and now there are 21-- 8 of us live at the African Enclosure and 13 are at the Al Ain Safari area.
I love grazing and may even spend two-thirds of my day enjoying grass. I am capable of living up to five days without water. I am very pleased that my caring friends at the Zoo have created a wholesome program to care for me and my friends here. They provide for us the right nutrition for our sustenance, veterinary care and everything else that we need so that we can breed and multiply in numbers, and live happily away from the threats that endanger our existence in the wilderness.