Zebras---Can You Ever Have Too Many?
by Cynthie Fisher

There`s always one slight snag for me in the hunting of zebras. I`ve studied their behavior and read up on their social structure, and I sometimes experience a little twinge of guilt when I shoot a stallion from a family group. Call me sentimental; I`ve read that the stallion stays with his mares for life, forming close bonds with his favorite girls...there's some evidence that removing the stallion from his family can delay the mare's breeding for up to two years while they adjust to a new leading man. The adult stallions actually don`t fight a whole lot. Once they have their little herd of three to six mares and foals they`re pretty content, and will seek each other out for a little camaraderie and male bonding. It`s those young ousted juveniles that make the trouble, since they have to prove their mettle with sparring and fighting before any adult stallion will permit them to steal one of his daughters to start a new herd. Quite the soap opera at times. I guess it`s comforting to assume that one of these enthusiastic upstarts will happily take charge of any leaderless group of mares; goodness knows there`s always plenty of bachelors waiting in the wings, and the lions don't differentiate between the boys and the girls when it comes to dinnertime.