For two or three days after a zebra birth, the mare does not permit her foal to gaze at other members of the herd or the harem stallion standing guard nearby. Her offspring must learn to recognize her alone. More effective than sound or scent is nature's visual marker—the mare's own stripe pattern.
A foal needs time, however, to imprint this unique design in its brain before mother and baby can mingle freely in the herd. This is not casual play but a matter of life or death. The herd cannot remain stationary for long. Moreover, the baby's window of receptivity "closes" after the short period of confinement.
The many harems of a migratory zebra herd typically graze a short distance away from birthing females. The approach of any curious adult, therefore, is cause for alarm to the new mother. The mare quickly blocks her foal from gazing on the visitor's stripes. This task can be exhausting for the new mother. If the baby is distracted from memorizing its mother's stripe pattern, it will never recognize her among the herd population.
A foal needs time, however, to imprint this unique design in its brain before mother and baby can mingle freely in the herd. This is not casual play but a matter of life or death. The herd cannot remain stationary for long. Moreover, the baby's window of receptivity "closes" after the short period of confinement.
The many harems of a migratory zebra herd typically graze a short distance away from birthing females. The approach of any curious adult, therefore, is cause for alarm to the new mother. The mare quickly blocks her foal from gazing on the visitor's stripes. This task can be exhausting for the new mother. If the baby is distracted from memorizing its mother's stripe pattern, it will never recognize her among the herd population. Such failure is always deadly. A confused and disoriented foal is ostracized by the harem. Herd members, rebuffing its cries, will drive the baby away. Wandering helplessly, the infant zebra quickly succumbs to starvation or attack by predators.
A baby zebra, from the moment of its birth, engages in a poignant life and death struggle. To have a chance, it must recognize the stripe pattern of its birth mother with invincible accuracy. A human being, contemplating the desperate urgency of this bonding imperative, may be inclined to perceive it as a cruel lottery. Perhaps it is in some sense. Nevertheless, a certain inevitability—one may call it perspective—reasserts itself in the human mind.
Nature is relentlessly even pitilessly what it is. No, not pitilessly. The word pity belongs to our peculiarly human capacity for poignant self-reflection. Such impulses are anathema to nature's ecological machinery. Nevertheless, the reality is that most zebra foals mature successfully, find food and survive predation to experience the ultimate imperative—procreation. The dance of the stripes is performed again.
(Photo courtesy of Ookaboo.)
(Photo courtesy of Ookaboo.)
