I would like you to meet zebra reference ZARV107 who calls Rietvlei Nature Reserve, in South Africa, his home.
I encountered him a couple of times in April 2025 when he was happily settled in a herd with, presumably, his mother and relatives.
Now, in October 2025, I found him all alone in the veld. A herd of Black Wildebeest fed quietly about 100 metres from him but that was all the company it had.
This is a normal scenario for young males. When they 12 to 14 months old they are ejected from their family group. They then wander alone until they find a bachelor herd to join.
The males in the bachelor herds are all young stallions waiting for their turn to take over a herd as well as old males who are no longer able to maintain their positions in a breeding herd.
Dominant males, in a family group, are often the ones who fall prey to lions as their job is to get between the predator and the rest of the herd.
So, it really isn’t easy being a male zebra…