Zebra Crossing

Humans have long had a fascination with zebras, from failed attempts to domesticise these feisty equids to depictions of their vivid black and white stripes in art, fashion or design. Studies show that the animals are in fact black, with white stripes forming later in development. A San folktale tells how the zebra was white but acquired black stripes as a result of falling into fire sticks after a fight with a baboon. This photograph, taken in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, shows two plains zebras.