Uganda being a landlocked country, has a lot to offer as a safari destination especially when it comes to game viewing. You might be overwhelmed with the numerous species of wildlife that you will see but nothing stands out as significantly as the black and white stripped zebra. The zebra is both a beauty and a mystery. One amazing fact about the zebra’s stripes is that no two zebras are exactly the same as they seem to be when seen from a far.
Although these stripes have inspired a number of fashion trends across the world, for the zebra that “wears” them naturally they are more for protection. The stripes are a type of camouflage that enables the zebras to hide from predators such as lions. It is very difficult for a predator to differentiate one zebra from another in a herd. There is also speculation that they scare away insects. They have shiny coats that dissipate over 70 percent of incoming heat, and some scientists believe the stripes help the animals withstand intense solar radiation. The black and white stripes are a form of camouflage called disruptive coloration that breaks up the outline of the body. Although the pattern is visible during daytime, at dawn or in the evening when their predators are most active, zebras look indistinct and may confuse predators by distorting true distance.
Zebras are important prey for lions and hyenas, and to a lesser extent for hunting dogs, leopards and cheetahs. When a family group is attacked, the members form a semicircle, face the predator and watch it, ready to bite or strike should the attack continue. If one of the family is injured the rest will often encircle it to protect it from further attack.