A probable answer is flies don’t like stripes. I guess I've been watching too many Disney movies with the kids recently... We can't hold discussions with zebras, so assigning chains of reasoning or abstractions like 'revenge' to their behavior is just story telling. Sadly, there is a 50 percent average mortality rate for foals, due in large to such predators as lions, hyenas, cheetahs, leopards and wild dogs. If you are only casually interested in horses then perhaps you can get away with ignoring the ugly stuff. A stallion can gain new mares by challenging and defeating another. So why do striped zebras confuse flies so much? For example, a stallion has to spend time guarding his mares from other males or potential threats. It is instinct for the stallion to kill a foal who isn't healthy because it will not be strong enough to keep up with the herd. But many medical professionals seem to forget that “zebras” DO exist and so getting a diagnosis and treatment can be more difficult for sufferers of rare conditions. But when and why might this happen? Animals (including humans) don't generally have sex because they want offspring, they have sex because they really. Some people believe that zebras are faster than horses, but they are wrong. Now we want to help people who love horses as much as we do to cultivate the best possible relationship with their horse - one that benefits both horse and human. These … Put another way, the male you see killing the offspring of another male is there because he is decended from a long line of males that all did the same thing, not the ones that sacrificed their own breeding opportunity to let offspring of other males live. Walter Rothschild with his Zebra Driving Team. This behavior does not get nearly as aggressive as when fighting off predators. 6 Main Differences Between Horses & zebras. Other well-documented examples include lions and langur monkeys. So can we use this to explain why stallions attack foals? Young stallions are less likely to show aggression towards foals they don’t know and fillies are less at risk in general. Is there a way to notate the repeat of a larger section that itself has repeats in it? Zebra are grouped into harems where there is one dominant male with as many as 6 females and their foals in the group. … There are three main types of zebra in existence. Zebras have never been domesticated. Author has 216 answers and 603.8k answer views. Thanks for contributing an answer to The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange! Use this calculator to work out your horse’s weight carrying ability. Since horses tend to live in managed herds, there are very few populations that live a truly wild existence and it is hard to know what these horses would do if left to their own devices. Stack Exchange network consists of 176 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Though disturbing to us, infanticide is fairly commonplace across many species. This is radically anthropomorphizing an animal's behavior beyond all reason. It is intended to inspire you and help you come up with new things to do with your horse besides riding. However a stallion can never be certain that he is the father of a given foal. Caring for his rivals’ sons simply means he is spending time and energy protecting colts that do not carry his genes. This generator selects a random non-ridden activity idea from an ever-growing pool that fits into the selected category. As a result, stallions have evolved strategies to safeguard against raising other stallions’ offspring. This happens because stallions will kill foals that are not their own. Still, unlike horses, zebras haven’t been bred for generations to live in captivity and interact with people. The high rate of failed horse pregnancies may have a simple explanation: pragmatism. rev 2020.12.2.38106, The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us. Nature produces a lot of pain and ugliness as well as spectacular beauty. For a lot of people, the idea that a horse would violently kill a young and helpless foal might be difficult to swallow. The narrator said this attack happened because the male was new and the baby was from an older male that was muscled out. to decide the ISS should be a zero-g station when the massive negative health and quality of life impacts of zero-g were known? Source Once the vultures started circling the mother started desperately calling to the baby, but the baby died soon after. Introduction to: Appaloosa Patterns & Genetics. Understanding horses is achieved not just through our own experiences but by constantly learning from the latest research in all areas of equine science and biology, from biomechanics and ethology to evolutionary theory. And as colts grow up, they become direct competition for mates as well. If the females in the harem have recently given birth, the new dominant male may kill their foals to eliminate any traces of his predecessor, and to bring the females into oestrus in order to further his own genetic legacy. Why do the males kill off newborn foals that are not their own? This matters because males that provide some degree of parental care to their offspring do so at cost to themselves. She could probably give him a hard kick to the head when he was asleep though and hurt him badly before he could put up much of a fight. Maybe the foal couldn't get up or was born sickly. This may seem harsh and haphazard but simple rules like this can be found throughout nature. first thing to appreciate is that this behaviour is not simply some strange quirk After a long battle between the male, mother and foal, the zebras disappeared behind the trees. The Zebra You Don’t Know. The coat is functional AND stylish. Is there any solution beside TLS for data-in-transit protection? To avoid inbreeding in captive zebras, zoos occasionally introduce a new male into their herd. Plus, the cost of such treatment is quite high. Good Horse aims to publish articles that are easy to understand and help readers choose the best approach to every aspect of their horsemanship. Is this an accepted social norm for zebras, or should the young male expect retribution?