Grevys are long legged and rather slenderly built with a long head. Grevy's zebras bray in a manner similar to a donkey. Grevy's zebras are essentially confined to the semi-desert of northern Kenya east of the Great Rift Valley and north of the Tana River. Their range extends into neighboring parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. During the rainy season mature stallions establish territories onto which mares come to foal and probably to breed.
Gestation is thirteen months, longer than any other equid.
This accelerated development of feeding capability allows the young Grevy foal to become independent of its mother at a relatively early age. Grevy's zebras are under continuing pressure from human encroachment on their habitat. During severe East African droughts in recent years, pastoral peoples have blocked the zebras' access to vital water holes and mortality rates have been high. Plains Zebra African equids for the most part replace one another geographically. There is a zone of overlap, however, between the Grevy's zebra and the plains zebra on the floodplain of the Ewaso Nyiro in northern Kenya.