Samara is home to many of the countries endangered species.
CAPE MOUNTAIN ZEBRA
Appearance
Like all zebra, it is boldly striped in black and white and no two individuals look exactly alike. The stripe can be black and white or dark brown and white. Zebra stripes cover their whole bodies, except for their bellies. The Mountain Zebra also has a dewlap.
Adult Mountain Zebra have a body length of 2,2 metres (7,2 feet). Shoulder height ranges from 1 to 1,4 metres (3 to 4 feet). They typically weigh between 240 and 372 kilograms. (528 to 818,4 pounds). The black stripes of the Cape Mountain Zebra are thicker with much smaller white interspaces, while this is the opposite in other Zebra species.
Ecology
Mountain Zebra live in hot, dry, rocky, mountainous and hilly habitats. They prefer slopes and plateaus and can be found as high as 1,000 meters above sea level, although they do migrate lower in the winter season. Their diet consists of tufted grass, bark, leaves, buds, fruit and roots. They often dig for ground water.
The Cape Mountain Zebra is now allopatric, meaning that their present ranges are non-overlapping. They are therefore unable to crossbreed. This is as a result of their extermination by hunting in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Historically, Mountain Zebras could be found across the entire length of the mountainous escarpment that runs along the west coast of Southern Africa as well as in the fold mountain region in southern South Africa.
Lifecycle
Mountain Zebra form small family groups consisting of a single stallion, one, two or several mares, and their recent offspring. Bachelor males live in separate groups and attempt to abduct young mares, which are opposed by the stallion. Mountain Zebra groups do not aggregate into herds like Plains Zebra.
Mares may give birth to one foal every twelve months. Like horses, zebra are able to stand, walk and suckle shortly after birth. The mare nurses the foal for up to a year, and the young zebra then leave to join bachelor groups or harems.
Conservation
The species is listed as Vulnerable. The Cape Mountain Zebra was hunted to near extinction with less than 100 individuals by the 1930s. However, the population has increased to about over 2 700 in the wild due to conservation efforts. Both Mountain Zebra sub-species are currently protected in national parks but are still threatened. There is a European zoo's Endangered Species Programme for this zebra as well as co-operative management of zoo populations worldwide.
CAPE SHELDUCK
The Cape Shelduck or South African Shelduck, Tadorna cana, is a species of shelduck, a group of large goose-like birds which are part of the bird family Anatidae, which also includes swans, geese and ducks. The Anatidae article should be referred to for an overview of this group of birds.
This is a 64 cm long bird which breeds in Southern Africa, mainly in Namibia and South Africa. In the southern winter, many birds move north-east from the breeding range to favoured moulting grounds, where sizable concentrations occur.
This species is mainly associated with lakes and rivers in fairly open country, breeding in disused mammal holes, usually those of the Aardvark.
Adult Cape Shelduck have ruddy bodies and wings strikingly marked with black, white and green. The male has a grey head, and the female has a white face and black crown, nape and neck sides.
Cape Shelduck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
The genus name Tadorna comes from Celtic roots and means "pied waterfowl", essentially the same as the English "shelduck".
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