A British photographer captured the moment a zebra was born this month.<br /><br />Wildlife guide and conservationist Paul Goldstein spotted the heavily pregnant mum-to-be in Kenya's Masai Mara.<br /><br />The female took less than twenty minutes to deliver her foal in the Olare Conservancy, and the youngster immediately was up on its hooves.<br /><br />Wimbledon-based Paul explains: "In the New Year, if the light rains come, the freshly leavened grass seems to prompt zebras to give birth, but it is very rare to see.<br /><br />"This was very long lens stuff as it is precarious enough for both mother and foal without tourists driving all over them bringing attention to this vulnerable situation.<br /><br />"It took 19 minutes from birth to standing. No more than 300 metres away lions were surveying potential prey from a rocky outcrop but did not spot the newborn. If they had it would have been no contest.<br /><br />"An adult zebra is a formidable adversary for a lion but not a newborn. The thoughts behind the predator's myopia was that had this been a topi or gnu they would have spotted the infant immediately but the harsh black and white stripes perhaps confuse the cats.<br /><br />"Both mother and calf moved off after an hour - the youngster was always the far side of its parent.<br /><br />"This was only 500 metres from camp and we heard the lions feeding that night, but not on a striped quarry."<br /><br />Paul Goldstein co-owns Kicheche, four eco-gold small camps in Kenyan Conservancies.
