Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Primarily consume grasses (from Klingel 2013 unless otherwise noted)

• >90% of diet consists of grasses
  
  • 50 species of grasses eaten
  • Species consumed typically related to relative abundance; though some preferences noted (Ben-Shahar 1991)
    • Dietary staples: Panicum maximum, Themeda triandra, Cynodon dactylon, and Eragrostis superba
  • Stems, sheaths, leaves, and seeds preferentially used
  • Rhizomes and corms taken in extremely dry periods (Pienaar 1963)
• Herbs
• Eaten inadvertently (Klingel 2013 unless otherwise noted)

Diet when in famine (from Hack et al. 2002 unless otherwise noted)

• Will eat bark from trees and other coarse vegetation (Estes 2012)
• Hind-gut digestion enables more rapid processing of food
  • Facilitates survival when diet is of low nutritional value
  • Other ruminants lack this capability
  • Vegetation passes through the digestive tract in 30-45 hours, up to 45% faster than in the cow (Estes 2012)

Feeding behavior

• Stand or slowly walk while feeding (from Waring 1983 unless otherwise noted)
• Forehooves paw the ground to expose rhizomes and corms when above-ground material is not available
• Lips help gather herbage and push it between the incisors (Estes 2012)
  • Dexterous upper lip isolates preferred items from adjacent materials
  • Tongue helps bring food into the mouth
• Incisor teeth crop grasses (Breitwisch 1992; Estes 2012)
  • Jerk of the head posteriorly assists in cutting
  • Plant roots remain in the ground
• Cheek teeth grind the food
  • Chew material 1-1.5 times per second
  • Neck and head often raised while chewing

Immerse lips below water surface to drink (from Waring 1983 unless otherwise noted)

• Water sucked in through slightly parted lips slightly
• May intake > 4 liters (1 gallon) in a single bout of drinking

Ben-Shahar (1991)
Breitwisch (1992)
Estes (2012)
Hack et al. (2002)
Klingel (2013)
Pienaar (1963)
Waring (1983)