Cattle and sheep are substantially less energetic than horses. They have high metabolic rates and burn a lot of calories. Because they were inefficient food producers, they were domesticated considerably later than other animals.
In the wild, a herd of 10 to 25 mares, foals, and colts is led by a stallion who keeps an eye on the herd. If a competitor defeats the stallion, he gains control of all the mares.
Around the age of 18 months, horses reach sexual maturity. When colts reach adulthood, they are ejected from the herd and often establish bachelor groups. Bachelor groups aren’t particularly loyal to one another. When they are threatened, they generally flee in opposing directions.
A horse’s gestation span is approximately 325 days. Approximately 90% of all births occur at night. The majority of births are single births that last 15 to 30 minutes. Foals are born with their eyes wide open, stand up in a matter of minutes, and may hop around in a matter of hours. If a foal is not out in 20 minutes, both the mare and the foal are at risk of catastrophic complications. The foal’s snout is supported while the amniotic sack is broken to prevent water from getting down his throat.
For four or five months, foals nurse from their mothers. In one year, they will be half their original size, and in five years, they will be full size.
Horse Behavior by Przewalski
Przewalski’s horses, like wild domesticated horses, create long-term herds and social groupings that include a stallion, his harem of mares, and their offspring. They create home ranges and stick to them, but they will travel considerable distances to feed on grass, leaves, and buds. A typical social group herd consists of a senior mare, two to four other mares and their progeny, and a stallion on the outskirts. After a gestation period of 333 to 345 days, a single foal is born.
The stallion and his mares roam three to six kilometres each day, grazing, sleeping, mudbathing, and drinking from streams and natural springs. At night, they congregate and sleep for around four hours. As with other wild horses, social grooming is a vital way for herd members to bond. Two animals usually stand nose to tail to keep an eye out for danger from both directions, chewing each other’s shoulders and whithers. Their tails can be used as fly swatters.
The fathers of fillies frequently harass them. This starts when they are roughly two years old, which is also when they leave their harem and start looking for a new group.
Young guys mature at a slower rate. They start bothering females in estrus at the age of three and are forced to leave. Young males spend a few years in groups with other young males, developing their fighting abilities in preparation for forming their own harem from dispersed fillies, stealing fillies, or challenging a stallion for custody of his harem.
Social Structures and Zebra Behavior
Zebras are gregarious, anxious, and wary of strangers. They often congregate in small groups and mix freely with wildebeests and other antelopes, all the while keeping an eye out for lions.
The social structure and behaviour of zebras are quite similar to that of wild horses. Year-round breeding groups of plains and mountain zebras consist of a single adult male stallion, numerous adult mares, and their offspring. The ladies in the group form deep social relationships with one another, while the males in the group fight tooth and nail to keep exclusive mating rights to their mares.
Female plains and mountain zebras have unique ties because they are formed between unrelated females rather than sisters and relatives, as is the case with most animals. This means that after they have been weaned, young female zebras must leave the group as males. Stallions stay with the same female group for a long period, therefore if the females stayed in groups, they might eventually mate with their fathers.
Grevy’s zebras aren’t as social as other zebras. Mares and their children are the only stable units. Stallions live alone and defend territories near water or tasty grass, hoping to mate with ovulating females who pass through their territory while eating or drinking. The mare and her young remain in the male’s area after giving birth, partially for protection and partly because they need to eat and drink there anyway. Males are allocated depending on the presence of females rather than on food.
Large zebra herds are made up of several small herds that assemble to forage on rich grazing grounds and then disperse.
