The Grevy's zebra is the largest of the wild equines.
The Grevy's zebra is different from all other zebras because it has big ears, wears pinstripes and is an endangered species. Its home range is in an area of limited water and grass, and those resources are being encroached upon by humans and their livestock. That livestock brings diseases that the wild zebra has no resistance to, and as a wild animal, it gets no medical care. It packs lots of meat wrapped in a pretty and eye-catching hide. People like to look at it and take its picture. These are the principal reasons the Grevy's zebra is on the endangered species list. People living around the globe, even though they never see a Grevy's zebra in the wild, can help save this beautiful animal.
Instructions
1. Stop poaching for meat and hides. Protein-rich meat is scarce for many peoples in Africa who subsist on a diet of cereal grains and greens. "Bush meat" (any wild game brought to market) can fetch a good price, and the Grevy's zebra is a large animal with a lot of meat on it. Zebra hides sell well in the fashion and decorating industries. For African countries, stopping poaching means hiring and equipping game scouts and wardens to find and destroy traps and snares and arrest poachers. In the U.S., it means not buying wild animal products, including hides in any form.
2. Reduce habitat destruction. Some of the national parks, especially the popular tourist destinations in Kenya, are being damaged by overuse. Take a safari in an African country that has fewer tourists, such as Ethiopia -- they have much the same animals to look at and photograph, the hotels are as good and the Grevy's zebra lives there.
3. Help ease the Grevy's zebra's need to compete with humans and domestic livestock for grazing land and water by supporting -- financially and politically -- projects that help African people learn to care for and renew the environment they already occupy instead of seeking to expand outward from exhausted lands. Donations to reforestation programs and other conservation efforts can be tax-deductible, and many U.S. zoos and museums support these efforts.
4. Seek out and support projects specifically designed to help the Grevy's zebra. The St. Louis Zoo WildCare Institute's Horn of Africa Conservation Center focuses specifically on the Grevy's zebra's range in northern Kenya and Ethiopia. The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund awards grants for studies of a diverse range of species across the world, including one to monitor and protect Grevy's zebra populations in northern Kenya.
Tags: Grevy zebra, endangered species, northern Kenya, wild animal