In contrast, the system found in Grevy's zebra and the two species of asses has fluid relationships. Adults rarely stay together for more than a few months and most adult males live alone in large territories marked with piles of dung. A male mates with any females in estrus that choose to enter his territory. Now lives only in isolated populations in northwest India, Turkmenistan, and central Iran. Re-established in one site in Uzbekistan.
Conservationists hope to save the remaining wild equids from a similar fate.
Meadows Robin Meadows is a contributing editor to ZooGoer. Friends of the National Zoo.