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 in the late 19th century – though there is currently a plan, called the Quagga Project, that aims to breed zebras that are phenotypically similar to the quagga in a process called breeding back. The name "zebra" in English dates back to c. 1600, from Italian "zebra", perhaps from Portuguese, which in turn is said to be Congolese (as stated in the "Oxford English Dictionary"). The "Encarta Dictionary" says its ultimate origin is uncertain, but perhaps it may come from Latin "equiferus" meaning "wild horse"; from "equus" ("horse") and "ferus" ("wild, untamed"). The word was traditionally pronounced with a long