Grevy's Zebra, Marwell Zoo, England
Grevy's Zebras were once quite widely distributed in the Horn of Africa, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, their former presence in Eritrea and Djibouti is uncertain but they may have occurred there, now they are classified as endangered, the largest wild populations are in Kenya, otherwise just a handful survive on the Alledeghi Plain near Awash National Park in Ethiopia and in the south of the country on the Kenya border, the species has been extirpated in Somalia.
In 1882 during the Scramble for Africa when the European powers were dividing up the continent, the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II rightly concerned that Italy had their eyes on his country, wanted to be friends with France, he sent one of these zebras to the then President of France, a Monsieur Jules Grevy, the animal died soon after its arrival and was sent to a museum, a French zoologist Émile Oustalet, noted that it was a different species of zebra that he had not seen before, so he named it Grevy's Zebra (Equus grevyi).
In fact the Zebra sent to France in 1882 was not the first in Europe, these zebras were known to the Romans and imported to be displayed in their arenas, they knew them as hippotigris, which literally translates as horse-tiger. That the Romans were able to obtain Grevy's Zebras, does suggest that at the time, they must have been found further north, at least as far as the Red Sea coast in Eritrea or perhaps even Sudan
Grevy's Zebra, Marwell Zoo, England
Grevy's Zebras were once quite widely distributed in the Horn of Africa, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, their former presence in Eritrea and Djibouti is uncertain but they may have occurred there, now they are classified as endangered, the largest wild populations are in Kenya, otherwise just a handful survive on the Alledeghi Plain near Awash National Park in Ethiopia and in the south of the country on the Kenya border, the species has been extirpated in Somalia.
In 1882 during the Scramble for Africa when the European powers were dividing up the continent, the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II rightly concerned that Italy had their eyes on his country, wanted to be friends with France, he sent one of these zebras to the then President of France, a Monsieur Jules Grevy, the animal died soon after its arrival and was sent to a museum, a French zoologist Émile Oustalet, noted that it was a different species of zebra that he had not seen before, so he named it Grevy's Zebra (Equus grevyi).
In fact the Zebra sent to France in 1882 was not the first in Europe, these zebras were known to the Romans and imported to be displayed in their arenas, they knew them as hippotigris, which literally translates as horse-tiger. That the Romans were able to obtain Grevy's Zebras, does suggest that at the time, they must have been found further north, at least as far as the Red Sea coast in Eritrea or perhaps even Sudan