Zebra Hunting – All You need to Know About Zebra Hunts

Your Zebra trophy should have an average shoulder height of around 50 inches and weigh about 800 pounds.

Zebras have been reintroduced into the Eastern Cape but are not genuinely free-ranging. Standard cattle and sheep fences impede zebras’ movement.

Zebra are relatively widely spread across the Eastern Cape. Hunts mainly use an ambush method in open country and walk and stalk techniques.

Zebra can be challenging to approach and very wild.

We offer the opportunity to hunt Zebra in several plains game packages.

Hunting Trophy Zebra can prove difficult, as judging stallions from mares can be challenging. Hunting is done by spot and stalk.

Although the mares choose the dominant stallion, the stallion will assume his position at the back of a retreating herd, thus being closer to the point of danger, often stopping to look back.

Zebra is very resilient and tough and likely will require a follow-up shot.

Zebra provides the ideal add-on to one of our packages for the hunter, such as the kudu- Nyala Game Hunts package.

Zebra is a remarkably tough animal. Shot placement is vital; a poorly placed shot will result in a long hunt.

We recommend the 7mm or 300 Magnum calibers for your hunt.

For those who do not wish to go through the red tape of bringing a rifle into South Africa to hunt with, Nick Bowker has 300 Winchester Magnums fitted with suppressors.

We have high-end Swarovski tactical optics mounted on the rifles. We have hand-loaded Hornady ELD-X 200-grain ammunition for hunters.

This setup, including ammunition, is free of charge as part of all hunting packages. Hunt methods are mainly spot and stalk.

Zebra form small herds, usually 8 to 10 in number, consisting of a stallion, several mares, and their foals. Excess males leave the herd and form bachelor herds. These make for ideal hunting targets.

Good glassing is essential in trophy assessment when hunting.

If it is the flat skin you are after, the hunter should be advised that the old stallions will most likely be battle-scarred and worn and not a suitable trophy for your Zebra rug.

Zebra hunters look for a younger male or a mare if an excellent hide is what they seek. As often with African animals, hunting zebra is best in the early morning or late afternoon. They are regular drinkers.

• Every zebra has a unique pattern. Scientists can use patterns like bar codes to identify individuals in a herd and keep track of them over time.

• For a long time, scientists have wondered why zebras have stripes. According to one theory, it confuses predators, making it harder for a lion to pick out an individual zebra from a stampeding herd.

• Recently, some scientists have believed that stripes keep zebras cooler. The dark bars soak up more sunlight than the light ones, which stirs up eddies of wind that swirl heat away.

• Researchers have also discovered that biting flies avoid striped patterns.
• The two theories might be linked as biting flies prefer hot temperatures, making them less likely to bite a cooler zebra.

• One of the three zebra species, the mountain zebra, was nearly extinct in South Africa but was saved by a farmer’s group.

• Mountain zebra have incredibly hard, sharp hooves that help them negotiate in difficult, rugged terrain.

• And while this wild critter can’t grow a mountain man beard, it does have a bizarre, prominent neck flap called a dewlap.

• A distinctive subspecies of the plains zebra, the quagga was mostly yellow-brown and un-striped below its shoulders.

• Native to South Africa, it was driven to extinction by European settlers and hunters. The last quagga died at the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883.

• Zebras can breed with the horses. The offspring come in a fantastic variety of semi-striped patterns and are usually infertile.

• Burchell Zebra safari-style hunting can be done across South Africa.

• Zebra often associate with blue wildebeest.

Description of Zebra

The unique stripes of zebras make them one of the animals most familiar to people. They occur in various habitats, such as grasslands, savannas, woodlands, thorny scrublands, mountains, and coastal hills.

Zebras have excellent eyesight. The Zebra’s eyes are on the sides of its head, giving it a wide field of view.

They also have night vision but are not as advanced as most of their predators.

Zebras have excellent hearing due to large, rounded ears and can turn their ears in almost any direction.

In addition to superb eyesight and hearing, zebras also have an acute sense of smell.

The eyesight of Zebra can make zebra hunting very challenging.

Highly social, Zebra live in groups called a dazzle, herd, or zeal. Stallions keep harems and their foals up to six mares.

Bachelor males live alone or form bachelors until they are old enough to challenge a breeding stallion.

Information for Zebra hunting

The common plains zebra species is about 47 – 51 inches at the shoulder. It can weigh up to 700 – 900 pounds, males slightly more significant than females.

• Plains zebras are the smallest, most abundant, of the horse family’s wild members. They roam across much of southeastern Africa.

• Zebra comes in all sorts of subspecies and coat variations. For example, the further south you travel across Africa, the plains zebras will have fewer stripes on their legs. Nobody is sure why, but it may have something to do with the temperature or populations of those biting flies.

• Found in Kenya and Ethiopia, Grevys zebras have a more donkey-like shape, with huge round ears. The Grevy’s zebra species is the largest wild horse family member and can weigh up to 990 pounds.

The Hartmann zebra is a sub-specie of the Mountain Zebra and is found only in Nambia and can be hunted.