BIOPARC Valencia recently welcomed their first Zebra foal of the year!

The new mother, Bom, arrived at BIOPARC Valencia in 2007 from the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark, and the father, Zambé, was transferred from Safari de Peaugres in France in 2012.

Keepers report that the new family is doing very well, and the foal constantly follows his mother, who protects and feeds on demand, enjoying the warm summer days with the rest of the herd. Predictably, the Zoo says other females in their herd of Grant’s Zebra are currently pregnant and could give birth soon.

Photo Credits: BIOPARC Valencia

This new Zebra birth adds to those that in previous years have occurred in BIOPARC, which makes it a genetic reserve of this emblematic African species.

The geographical distribution of the Grant's Zebra (Equus burchelli boehmi) is in Zambia, west of the Luangwa River, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. They are the smallest of six subspecies of the Plains Zebra.

Their diet includes grass, hard stems and, sometimes, leaves or bark of trees and shrubs. They require a large amount of food so it is not uncommon for them to spend around 20 hours a day grazing.

The gestation period is 360-370 days and usually one calf is born. Life expectancy is around 38-40 years.