Zebra black and white at birth. Plains and mountain zebra foals are protected by their mothers, as well as the head stallion and the other mares in their group. Grévy's zebra foals have only their mother as a regular protector, since, as noted above, Grévy's zebra groups often disband after a few months. Attempts have been made to train zebras for riding, since they have better resistance than horses to African diseases. While occasionally successful, most of these attempts failed due to the zebra's more unpredictable nature and tendency to panic under stress. For this reason, zebra-mules or zebroids (crosses between
Zebra crossing Grade II listed building status. There is also a tongue-in-cheek reference to zebra crossings in the science-fiction comedy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by English author Douglas Adams, in reference to Man using the improbable creature called the Babel fish as proof of the "non"-existence of God; the novel says, "Man then goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed at the next zebra crossing." The La Paz traffic zebras is a team of young people who dress in zebra costumes and dance in the streets of La Paz, Bolivia in order to make drivers