subject: The Organization of Zebra Species [print this page] The Organization of Zebra Species The Organization of Zebra Species
Science always tries to explain everything that goes on in our day to day lives. It tries to tell us how the world was created, where animals and their different species emerged from and so on. This article is going to bring to light the different groups of zebra species and their scientific names.
The beginning
The zebra has a scientific name that you undoubtedly might not know or might not have heard about. It is Equus; don't have too much fun pronouncing it. This set simply groups together all the three main species and subspecies.
Hippotigris
This is the first of two groups that branch off from the main equus group. This particular grouping contains two of the three main species and eight sub-species. The two of the three species are the plains and Mountain zebras.
The Plains zebra
This species, also known by its scientific name, equus quagga, is the first of the three and contains six sub-species. These are: quagga (equus quagga quagga) it is extint, burchell's (equus quagga burchelli), grant's zebra (equus quagga boehmi), selous' zebra (equus quagga borensis), chapman's zebra (equus quagga chapmani) and the crawshay's zebra (equus quagga crawshayi).
The Mountain zebra
The mountain zebra is the second specie and is also known by its scientific name, equus zebra. It has two sub-species called cape mountain zebra (equus zebra zebra) and the hartmann's zebra (equus zebra hartmannae).
Dolichohippus
This is the second and last group that branches off from the main equus group. It contains the last and third main zebra specie. Unlike the first two, it does not contain any sub-species. The name of the specie is the grevy's zebra and also goes by the scientific name, equus grevyi.
The Grevy's zebra
This is the largest specie of the three. It is also believed that it was the center of all species that emerged after it.
Conclusion
Both the Hartmann and Grevy's zebra are endangered except the Plains zebra. Unlike the other two, it is plentiful and the governments of Tanzania and South Africa exercise controlled culling.
