Inglés para niños: 10 amazing facts about zebras

Te invitamos a leer 10 datos asombrosos sobre las cebras en inglés: 10 amazing facts about the zebras. Una lectura muy entretenida para niños de Primaria, de la mano de la revista para aprender inglés I Love English Junior (marzo - abril 2021, número 117). 

Los niños conocerán datos muy interesantes y divertidos sobre estos animales que tienen un dibujo en la piel muy original. Además, aprenderán nuevo vocabulario y practicarán la lectura en inglés.

Ver +: Lecturas para niños en inglés

Inglés para niños: 10 amazing facts about the zebras

1. Zebras live in vast areas of eastern and southern Africa. Their preferred habitat are treeless grasslands and savannah woodlands. Unfortunately, their habitat is shrinking and even extinct in Lesotho and Burundi, two of the countries which they're native to. 

2. Zebras live in herds or small family groups consisting of a male, called stallion, which leads the group, several females and their young or babies. The group remains so close that if a predator injures one individual, fellow members will circle it and attempt to scare the intruder away.

3. Zebras are related to horses -both belong to the Equidae family-, but they're not the same species. In fact, zebras are closer to donkeys than to horses in terms of conformation. Zebras range in height from about 1.2-1.5 metres, whereas a horse can grow up to 1.8 metres.

4. Because of this height difference between zebras and horses, riding a zebra is not recommended. They can't support the weight of an adult human for a long time without getting injured. 

5. You can't have a zebra as a pet either, as they are unpredictable, grumpy or bad-tempered and may attack if they're scared. They may turn aggressive and far more dangerous than horses, and even kick each other to death, bite humans and kill lions.

6. The black and white stripes of zebras are thought to serve different purposes: as camouflage against predators, to scare away animals, and as thermoregulation (the white stripes absorbing the heat and warming zebras up, and the black ones reflecting the light and keeping zebras cool), but the real function of a zebra's stripes remains unsolved.

7. Zebras gather together in huge herds of thousands when they plan to migrate to new and better feeding areas. They are constantly on the move and even travel in mixed herds with other species like grazers, wildebeest or browsers. 

8. Mother zebras keep away her baby from other zebras for a few days to make sure that the baby learns her smell, stripe pattern and voice. It is very important that the baby zebra is able to recognize its mother.

9. Did you know that in ancient times zebras were trained to pull chariots at circuses? They were named "hippotigris" (horse-tiger) by the Greeks and Romans. Nowadays domestication or training of zebras is possible but not practical or really acceptable.

10. A group of zebras is called a "dazzle". They are so named for the motion dazzle effect when running. You can also simply say a "herd of zebras" or a "zeal of zebras", but those terms don't sound so fun, do they?