No Zebra Stripe Is Alike

Beautiful stripes of the Burchell's "Plains Zebra" in Kenya

When you come across a herd of zebra while on a game drive, its difficult not to admire their beautifully contrasting black and white stripes. Glancing at the herd, one could even have an impression that all the zebra stripe patterns are alike. In reality however, every zebra has its own unique pattern and each zebras stripe is as unique as a person's finger print.

Try picking two individual zebras standing side by side and take a closer look at them with a pair of binoculars, you will suddenly begin to spot quite a number of differences between their complete body stripes. Some of the differences you may find include; direction and angles of patterns, thickness of the stripes, some random hidden spots and different shades of grey, brown and black colouring.

Zebra patterns differ in design, thickness, colour and also have occasional spots like the one pictured above

So the next time you see a herd of zebra while on safari, take a few moments to try and note the unique differences in their patterns. You will be amazed by the variety and also quite entertained in trying to photograph them.