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Newborn has her mom's stripes
By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published June 10, 2006
A newborn Grevy's zebra stayed close to mom Friday afternoon at Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa.
Born at 10 a.m. Thursday, the female foal was up and frolicking within an hour, occasionally running around her grazing mother. Zebra foals recognize their mothers by smell and sight, and focus on mom's rump for identification. Each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, like a person's fingerprint.
The baby weighed in at about 75 pounds, and is the third foal born to dam Kellye and sire Chewy. Fourteen Grevy's zebras live at Busch Gardens, and that number should rise in the next few weeks, as the park is expecting several more births.
The zebras live on Busch Gardens' Serengeti Plain, home to a diverse population of free-roaming African animals that includes giraffes and antelopes. Thirty-three zebras call the park home; in addition to the threatened Grevy's zebra, the Serengeti Plain features Grant's zebra and the endangered Hartmann's mountain zebra.
Grevy's zebra is native to Kenya and Ethiopia. Busch Gardens participates in the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Species Survival Plan for Grevy's zebra.
[Last modified June 10, 2006, 12:13:24]
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