Zebra migrations, among the most dramatic wildlife spectacles on Earth, are increasingly disrupted by fences, drought, and hunting, causing mass mortality events.
Fence-blocked migration routes cause extreme suffering through mass starvation and dehydration as animals pile up unable to reach water and food. Zebras drowned in river crossings or injured by predators in natural migrations represent baseline suffering, but disrupted migrations dramatically increase mortality and suffering. Hunting using wire snares causes slow, agonising deaths. Orphaned zebra foals have extremely low survival rates.