Colt and Mom on PCH-2 by Mac-Wiz on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

It’s a perfect California day: bright sunshine, a light breeze, warm enough to drive with the windows down. As you cruise up the highway admiring the big, open fields and ponder the vastness of the universe, you glance out the window and notice a handful of

zebras munching some grass just in the distance.

Wait-zebras? In California? Out in the wild?

It’s true: There are wild zebras in California, a reminder of a time when vastly wealthy families kept private menageries for their children and as a way to show off their good fortune.

At last count, there were roughly 113 zebras roaming around the property along the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway near the Hearst Castle National Historic Landmark in San Simeon, just north of San Louis Obispo. A large portion of the property has been entrusted to the state for conservation in perpetuity.