Meet Marty the Zebra
September 03, 2009
Just 10 days old today, Marty is the Cincinnati Zoo's newest zebra foal. Grevy's Zebras are the largest subspecies of zebra and "little" Marty weighed a healthy 93 lbs at birth. Born to parents Lainey Lynn and Shewa, Marty does some pretty cute bounding on some awfully thin legs in the video at the bottom.
The largest of the zebras, the endangered Grevy’s zebra grows to nearly 10 feet in length and 1,000 pounds. It munches on grasses and leaves in the scrublands and savannas of Eastern Africa.
Normally only one foal is born to a female after a gestation period (the time between mating and birth) of thirteen months. A young zebra has brown stripes and a mane which stretches from the shoulder to the tail. The background color of the foal's coat is light brown instead of white. This protective coloring helps the foal to "freeze" and blend instantly with its background.