Zara is a zebra. She’s a stripey-wipey zebra. She is white with black stripes. Or is that black with white stripes? Sometimes, it’s really hard to tell! But as with all zebras, Zara’s stripes are in a pattern which is unique to her. That means no other zebra, anywhere, has stripes that are the same as hers.

Zara lives with her family and lots of other zebra families. Together they make up a herd. They live on the wild plains in Africa. Zara is a very playful zebra and she loves playing games. Her favourite game is hide and seek, which she plays with her friends in the grasslands that they pass through. Zara knows just how to hide so she can’t be spotted. It takes the other zebras a long time to find her!

Zara’s herd moves around a lot to find food and water. When they are on the move, they meet a lot of other animals, like gazelles and wildebeests.

One very hot day, the herd is resting by a watering hole. There are some rhinoceroses bathing beside them in the muddy water. As one of the rhinoceroses pokes its head up through the surface of the water, Zara recognises her. It’s Ria, a friend she’s met before when the herd is on its travels.

“Hey Ria!” Zara shouts over. “Long time, no see!”

Ria looks back over her shoulder. “Hi Zara!” she replies, as she stands up, splashing mud everywhere. Some even lands on Zara’s back. She laughs with a neigh and shakes it off.

“Are you here for long?” asks Zara.

“No,” says Ria, looking around her cautiously. She slowly sloshes through the water towards the bank where Zara is sitting.

When she is close enough, she leans towards Zara’s ear and whispers. “We’re just passing through. We have to keep moving as they say there are poachers in this area.”

“What are poachers?” whispers Zara. She’s not quite sure why they are whispering, but she likes learning about new things.

“They’re humans who try to chase us because they want to steal our horns,” says Ria.

“But your horns are yours,” says Zara. “Why do they want them?”

“Because they can make things from them. So we have to make sure they can’t catch us to get them.”

“Oh no!” says Zara. She doesn’t want anyone to catch her friend and steal her horn. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Have you tried some of the things we zebras do so we don’t get caught?” Zara asks Ria, sounding hopeful.

“What sort of things do you mean?” responds Ria.

“Well, we zebras have stripes to help protect us. They do a pretty good job of giving us camouflage. That means that they make it hard to see us, especially when we’re in clumps of grasses on the plains.”

“Wow,” says Ria, “that sounds cool!”

“And when we’re together in herds,” Zara continues, “our stripes makes it harder for any animals that want to catch us. They just see a big, moving mass of stripes. It’s much more difficult for them to single one of us out to chase.”

Ria lowers her head to the ground, looking sad. “But rhinos don’t have stripes,” she says. Zara realises she is right.

“Then maybe we can try something else,” she suggests.

Zara, who is very playful, thinks about playing and hide and seek, which she loves because sometimes she can hide right in front of another zebra. They don’t know she is there because she just doesn’t look like a zebra. This gives her an idea.

“Ria, have you thought of pretending to be something else whenever the poachers are near?”

“Something other than a rhino, you mean?” asks Ria.

“Yes,” replies Zara, a grin spreading across her face. “And I think I know just what that could be. Ria, can you kneel down and put your head on the ground?”

“OK,” Ria agrees, slowly lowering her hefty body down to the ground, one leg at a time. “Like this?” she asks.

“Yes!” says Zara. “Ria, you look just like a big stone boulder. No-one would ever know you are an animal.”

“Really?” says Ria, surprised. “That means we can hide from the poachers…”

“…in plain sight!” finishes Zara.

“I have to tell the rest of my friends and family,” says Ria, excitedly. She starts to wobble as she tries to get back up, so Zara helps support her.

Ria ambles over to the watering hole and in no time, she has collected the other rhinoceroses together around her. She explains Zara’s idea to them. They all nod their heavy heads containing their big white horns up and down, to show they want to try her idea out.

“Let’s practise?” suggests Ria.

And with that, all of the rhinoceroses slowly drop down, one leg at a time, to kneel on the ground. THUD-THUD-THUD!

“Yes!” Zara neighs, looking at them and shaking her mane triumphantly. “You all look just like a big group of boulders. The poachers will never know it’s you!” Zara is so glad that she can help Ria and her friends hide so cleverly.

“We’re so grateful,” says Ria.

“No problem at all. What are friends for?” Zara smiles.

“How about we play some other game before we all have to move on again?”

“Great idea!” says Ria. “Now you’ve helped us all to be so good at standing still like rocks, we could play…statues?”

Zara laughs. “That sounds just perfect!”

Questions for discussion

Can you think of something about yourself that is unique, like Zara’s stripes?

Do you know of any other animals that human poachers try to catch?

Why is it important that we stop poachers?