Cape Mountain Zebra Was Almost Extinct As a Result of Hunting and Competition for Grazing with Farm Stock

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Cape Mountain Zebra Was Almost Extinct As a Result of Hunting and Competition for Grazing with Farm Stock

CapeCape MountainMountain ZebraZebra Equus zebra zebra Conservation needs In the 1930s the Cape mountain zebra was almost extinct as a result of hunting and competition for grazing with farm stock. Conservation initiatives such as the formation of Mountain Zebra National Park in 1937 led to a steady increase in numbers. Cape mountain zebras are still rare and classed as endangered (IUCN Endangered; CITES Appendix I). The conservation priority is to build up numbers as quickly as possible to ensure long-term survival..

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Conservation Goals for the Cape Mountain Zebra Equus Zebra Zebra—Security in Numbers?
Conservation goals for the Cape mountain zebra Equus zebra zebra—security in numbers? H ALSZKA H RABAR and G RAHAM I. H. KERLEY Abstract The target of the 2002 IUCN Action Plan for the required to achieve the conservation objectives. However, Cape mountain zebra Equus zebra zebra was for a popu- such compromised targets may also be influenced by a poor lation of 2,500 animals. We assessed the validity of this goal understanding of the needs of a species for survival, as well by reviewing the conservation status of the subspecies and as underestimation of the potential to achieve larger, more the prospects of achieving larger populations. All subpopu- reliable, conservation targets. An example of the former is lations were identified and data on each were collected by where conservation targets for many large mammal species means of a questionnaire survey. The total extant Cape have been set based on earlier estimates of minimum viable mountain zebra population was found to consist of at least populations with an effective population size of c. 500 (e.g. 2,790 individuals in 52 subpopulations. The target number Lande & Barrowclough, 1987; Armbruster & Lande, 1993). of 2,500 has therefore been exceeded and this success is This figure of 500 is, however, based on maintaining genetic largely attributable to the private sector, as there are at variation in leg hair patterns in fruit flies and is 30 years old present double the number of privately owned subpopu- (Franklin, 1980) and outdated. Recent estimates have been lations (35) compared to formally protected subpopulations consistently higher than this (Reed et al., 2003).
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Wits Institutional Repository on DSPACE Palaeont. afr., 36, 91-96 (2000) EQUUS CAPENSIS (MAMMALIA, PERISSODACTYLA) FROM ELANDSFONTEIN by Vera Eisenmann Museum National D’ Histoire Naturelle URA 12 and 1415 du CNRS, 8 rue Bujfon, 75005 Paris, France. ABSTRACT The skull and limb bones collected at Elandsfontein, Cape indicate that£. capensis was different from a Grevy's zebra. The body proportions were similar to those of an extant draft horse (E. caballus) and the skull resembled those of true Cape quaggas and a fossil Algerian plains zebra, E. mauritanicus. KEYWORDS: Pleistocene, Elandsfontein, Equus capensis, zebras. INTRODUCTION African Museum Cape Town (E21025). It is very Because Equus capensis is a large equid and because large, but quite unlike a Grevy’s zebra skull. Grevy’s the Grevy's zebra is the largest of extant wild equids, it zebras have very long distances between the posterior has sometimes been considered that they were border of the palate and the posterior border of the conspecific (Churcher & Richardson 1978; Churcher vomer, and their muzzles are narrow (Eisenmann 1980 1986, 1993). This preliminary paper intends to point Plate 1). In the skull of E. capensis mentioned above, out some of the general features of E. capensis which, the muzzle is much wider and the distance between as noted by Broom (1913) “was more powerfully built palate and vomer (vomerine length) is relatively short. but did not stand so high” as “a modem horse 15 hands A scatter diagram of these dimensions in Grevy’s in high”.
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Equus Zebra Hartmannae – Hartmann’S Mountain Zebra
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