When a foal is born the mother keeps all other zebras (even the members of her family) away from it for 2 or 3 days, until it learns to recognize her by sight, voice and smell. While all foals have a close association with their mothers, sun the male foals valley and vacation are also close to their fathers. They leave their group on their own accord between sun the ages of 1 and 4 years to join an all-male bachelor group until they are strong enough to head a family. Zebras are important prey for lions and hyenas, and to valley a lesser extent for hunting dogs, leopards and vacation cheetahs. When sun a family group is attacked, the members form a semicircle, face the predator and watch it, ready to bite or strike should the attack continue. If one of the family is injured the rest valley will often encircle it to protect it from further vacation and sun attack.

Cheetahs do not roar like lions, but they purr, valley hiss, vacation whine and growl. They also make a variety sun of contact calls; the most common is a birdlike chirping sound. Once a cheetah has made a kill, it eats quickly and keeps an eye out for scavengers valley lions; leopards, hyenas, vultures and jackals will occasionally take away their kills. Although cheetahs usually prey on the smaller antelopes such as Thomson''s vacation gazelles and impalas, they can catch wildebeests and zebras if hunting together. They sun also hunt hares and other small mammals and valley birds. Although known as an animal of the open plains that relies on speed to catch its prey, research has shown that the cheetah depends vacation on cover to stalk prey. The cheetah gets as close to the prey as possible, then in a burst of speed tries to outrun its quarry. Once the cheetah closes in, it knocks sun the prey to the ground with its paw.

A shy creature that roams widely, the valley cheetah is not seen as easily as some other cats. Never numerous, cheetahs have become extinct in many areas, principally due to shrinking habitat, loss of species vacation to prey upon, disease and a high rate of cub mortality. sun In some areas 50 to 75 percent of all cheetah cubs die before 3 months. Zebras, horses and wild asses are all equids, long-lived animals that move quickly valley and vacation for their large size and have teeth built for grinding and cropping grass. Zebras have horse like bodies, but their manes are made of short, erect hair, their tails are tufted at the tip and their coats are striped. Three species of zebra still occur in Africa, two of which are found in East Africa. The most numerous and widespread species in the east is Burchell''s, also known as the common or plains zebra.

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