The Miracle of Life – A Baby Zebra
copyright 2006 Nancy Nunke
Spots 'N Stripes Ranch
This miracle of life could occur on a warm starlit August night in the glow of a full moon; on a cool and rainy March morning, or on the white of the snow on a cold December evening…the birth of a new baby zebra on a zebra ranch.
The mare doesn’t show many outward behavioral signs, if any, of the impending event. She doesn’t want any predators to know what is about to occur. But at the last moment before she lays down, she may paw with one foot or the other, she may pace a little, and she may quietly move a little away from the rest of the mares, but not too far to be out of the protective cover of the group should a predator arrive.
Quietly the mare will drop down and begin to push with the contractions. Within a short time she will lay over on her side and push again with the flow of contractions. An opaque bulge, similar to the look of a balloon, will appear, and as the contractions continue, the bulge will grow larger, as more and more of the life within is pushed into the world.
With a last exhausted heave of the mare, the body of the baby will feel the earth for the first time. The hind legs ideally will remain in the mare for up to several minutes while the mare and foal rest from this traumatic event. This gives the placenta an opportunity to gently begin detatching from the uterus, and the ambilical cord and blood flow within to prepare for detatchment from the baby.
The newborn foal will finally pull its legs out in triumph and greet the world on this, its first day of conscious life, by stretching out the limbs that have been floating effortlessly in the mare for so long, while it practiced kicking and bumping its mother from the inside out, making itsself ready to ‘hit the ground running’.
As the baby is assaulted by the sounds and sights of the day and all else around it that will be part of its new life, its surprise and inborn curious nature causes it to rise to its feet, albeit unsteadily, with perhaps a fall or two before it spreads each of four feet to the north, south, east and west, and can lock them long enough to have a quick look around before mother ‘licks’ it to the ground, anxious to help dry her baby, unknowingly, to warm it, and eliminate as soon as possible the stronger scent of the fluids from the ‘water bed’ the baby lived in while it became this awesome creature within her body.
Once this new life has its ‘land legs’ under it, it begins to investigate its mother’s body, who maintains the closest of vigils over her new charge, knowing she is the only protector this tiny copy of herself has. As her contractions begin to subside, and she expels the afterbirth, she now can turn her attention to cuddling, nuzzling, and watching over her youngster. She keeps herself between any other member of her group and her baby so that her youngster will see only her and learn to identify her among the others in the herd, as she is the only one who can feed her baby or who ‘will’ feed her baby and her baby must know how she smells and what she looks like among all others. The zebra baby must be able to identify its mother by her striping pattern, and that pattern must be embedded in its mind immediately and without any distraction of the other animals’ patterns.
As the baby explores its mother, it is led by its inborn survival directives to locate its new source of life, the milk it needs in the next several hours to give it life saving antibodies against any diseases and bacteria that could easily end its life in this new world. The foal is not born with these immunities; it must nurse from its mother and obtain them after it is born.
Within just a few minutes to an hour, the mother zebra is instilling in her baby the way to stay alive in this world, passed on instinctively from mother to offspring for thousands of years, generation upon generation.
Baby is taught to stay away from every moving, breathing creature, even its own kind for a time, but especially anything that looks different, as they must all be assumed predators, in order to stay alive. Run, hide, but if you can’t, then fight …are the first and most important rules of survival taught to a newborn zebra.
And so, a new life has entered the world, our world, welcomed, loved, and under our guardianship and control…what are our responsibilities toward this awesome creature?
The Human Decisions
What decisions do we have to make about this new foal? Here are our options, which we must look at immediately in determining what we do now with this baby. If we don’t make some decisions as to the future of this foal immediately we can lose some important windows of opportunity quickly.
Option 1…Leave this baby with its mother to be ‘wild’ raised for several months.
Option 2…Leave this baby with its mother for a ‘limited’ time, then take the baby and expose it to the ‘human’ environment and continue milk feeding.
Option 3…Leave the baby with its mother to be sure it gets the much needed colostrum, then take the baby and expose it to the ‘human’ environment, and continue milk feeding.
What does the planned future of this foal have to do with which option we choose? Everything!
Is this baby going to go to another breeder and eventually be turned out with a new kinship group?
Is this baby going to a home where it will be kept as a 'lawn ornament', and never handled, but needs to be somewhat comfortable with humans in its pen or hanging over the fence?
Is this baby going to go to a home where its maximum training potential is to be developed?
We can tame and train the zebra, but under any kind of stress they answer to their 'wild' instincts, which can only be overridden by very careful and exacting training; training that is acceptable to the zebra. They can never be thought of as domesticated, just because they may be trained. Their flight/fight mechanisms are always right on the surface…and the longer the baby is left with the mare and the kinship group, the more ‘wildness’ is deeply embedded in the baby’s mind, and its actions will quickly reflect the training it is receiving daily from its mother and other members of the group, especially if the mother and other members do not walk up to the humans, but move away from them.
Later, if or when we take the baby away, we will have many ‘habits, learned behaviors’ with respect to what the baby has already been trained to do around humans, to ‘undo’. Everything its mother has taught it to do around humans in the most influential time of its life…the limited time nature gives it to learn how to survive…you are now going to have to reprogram…so you are already in a state of being ‘set back’ in your zebra’s training. (This is not shown so extreme with horses, unless the horses are not around humans, or the horse mare is hard to catch, or does not walk up to the humans, then she will impart the same ‘stay away from the humans’ training in her foal)
However, it is not just a simple matter of taking the baby off of the mare, and then assuming that exposure to the humans will 'tame' and/or 'train' the baby. There are many more considerations due to the nature of the zebra, even when away from the mare. What inate characteristics will take over and rule the zebra baby's behavior, even without his mother's influencing presence? What human behaviors will change or perhaps even reinforce the inate behaviors? Without the 'false' and 'dangerous' bonding that bottle feeding produces, how does the human become the 'friend' and 'trainer' of this young zebra? What training techniques can reduce the zebra baby to 'untrainable' or reduce the 'trainability factor'? What amount of training should a young zebra have to prepare it for future training as an adult and to continue the 'trainability' factor? What questions should you ask the breeder of your potential zebra foal to determine if you are getting a 'trainable' zebra?
What can I expect of a zebra baby I purchase from Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3, above with respect to future training? How informed do I need to be before I purchase a zebra baby I want to train? If I purchase an untrained zebra foal, do I have the knowledge to train it? Do I know and understand zebra communication? Why do some of the best horse trainers in the world say that zebras 'cannot be trained'? Why can't most of the best horse trainers in the world train a zebra?
Watch for the continuation of this article, coming soon!
Spots 'N Stripes Ranch
All of our babies are trained to respect, halter, lead, lunge, hot walker, load, trailer and have their feet trimmed before you get them! They will understand the verbal cues, "Whoa, Come To, Away, and Back". They will have been saddled (light mini saddle) and harnessed, and will have seen and been led along with a cart.They will each have been to at least 3 major events to desensitize them to traffic, crowds, noises, lights, and many other facets of human gaity! They will be well socialized with donkeys, horses, miniature horses, and miniature donkeys. Each baby will have a special behavior taught such as rolling a ball, laying down on cue, walking a bridge, etc.
Your baby will NEVER be bottle fed at the Spots 'N Stripes RanchYour baby will IZZZA Registered, guaranteeing no inbreeding. It will have a pedigree and photo identification, and will be eligible for all IZZZA shows, special events, and year end awards.
Please Read Article on Why Purchase An IZZZA Registered Zebra
Each baby will have at least 300 hours of training to get it to the above abilities.
Yes, you will pay more for a trained zebra, just like for a trained horse! It is vitally important, however, to begin training a zebra baby at just a few days of age in order to optimise the extent to which the individual may be trained as an adult zebra, and to expose it to everything that you will want to expose it to as an adult. It is imperative to have accomplished all the above by 90 days of age. We also teach every new zebra purchaser the art of how we trained their baby, by providing three day training clinics (information and link on Home Page), and we urge continued training with us periodically to progressively turn your little one into a 'trained zebra'. Zebra training is $1500 per month for a zebra baby and first month for 6 months and older, and $850 for subsequent months of 6 months and older. Cost of feed and care will be determined by age and condition of zebra. Not all zebras may be accepted for training. Each zebra will be assessed as to its trainability by age, current relationship status with humans, and past human experiences.
Delivery can be arranged anywhere! Paypal accepted (percentage points may apply). Payments, lay away and terms also acceptable on approval.
