The mountain zebra in the family Equidae is native to south-western Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

The Mountain Zebra is a threatened species classified as vulnerable.

The Cape mountain zebra was hunted to near extinction and in the 1930s, their population was reduced to about 100 individuals.

However, consistent and vigorous conservation measures have succeeded in reversing the decline and the population had increased to some 1200, about 540 in national parks, 490 in provincial nature reserves, and 165 in other reserves. Also, due to conservation efforts, the population has increased to about over 2,700 in the wild.

The main threats to the species are the loss of habitat to agriculture, hunting and persecution. A zebra produces a good quantity of meat, and poaching them for food has decreased their numbers.

Despite suggestion from taxonomy experts that the two subspecies of the mountain zebra should be separate species, currently this species continues to be comprised of two subspecies:

Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra)

Hartmann′s mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae)

Like all extant zebras, mountain zebras are boldly striped in black or dark brown and no two individuals look exactly alike. The whole body is striped except for the belly. In the Cape mountain zebra, the ground color is effectively white, but the ground color in Hartmann′s zebra is slightly buff.

Groves and Bell found that the Cape mountain zebra exhibits sexual dimorphism, females being larger than males, whereas in Hartmann′s mountain zebra they are not. Hartmann′s zebra is on average slightly larger than the Cape mountain zebra.

Adult mountain zebras have a head-and-body length of 7 feet to 8.5 feet (2.1 to 2.6 m) and a tail of 16 to 22 inches (40 to 55 cm) long.

Shoulder height ranges from 3.8 feet to 5 feet (1.16 to 1.5 m). Adults weigh from 450 to 820 pounds (204 to 372 kg).

Mountain zebras live in hot, dry, rocky, mountainous and hilly habitats, found on mountain slopes, open grasslands, woodlands and areas with sufficient vegetation, but their preferred habitat is mountainous terrain, especially escarpment with a diversity of grass species. They prefer slopes and plateaus as high as 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level, although they do migrate lower during winter. Their preferred diet is tufted grass, but in times of shortage they will browse, eating bark, twigs, leaves, buds, fruit, and roots.

The habitat of Cape mountain zebra and the Hartmann's mountain zebra do not overlap, which prevents them from crossbreeding, but this current situation is a result of their population being fragmented when hunters exterminated them throughout the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

Historically, mountain zebras could be found across the entire length of the escarpments along the west coast of southern Africa and in the fold mountain region in the south. However, they generally inhabited poorly productive land and were nowhere really numerous in comparison to those species of zebras or antelope that inhabited the plains.