The Capay Valley Zoo is proud to welcome our latest addition, the Celebrity Zebras.

Although shorter and stockier than its cousin the horse, the zebra stands out with its distinctive black and white stripes. Like human fingerprints, no two zebras have the same stripe pattern.

Zebras are herbivores, which simply means they are vegetarians. Due to their massive body weight, they can spend an entire day eating grass just to get the nutrition the need to survive. Zebras are more active during the daylight hours but they will graze at night. Although they do sleep at night, one member of the herd will stay alert for would-be predators.

Why do Zebras have stripes? Scientist aren’t really sure, but they do serve two functions which help the zebra to live in its natural habitat.

First of all, when the zebras feel threatened they will move closer to the herd. It makes it difficult for would-be predators such as lions to distinguish an individual zebra from the herd.

Secondly, their unique blend of stripes creates a cooling system as the black stripes get much hotter than the white ones. The zebra then has a layer of fat under the black stripes that turns the heat outward and the mix of cool and hot creates a fan which evaporates the sweat and cools the zebra.

We invite you to come and check out our extraordinary Zebras!

Click here  for more zebra pictures.