They prefer slopes and plateaus as high as 2,000 m (6,600 ft) above sea level, although they do migrate lower during winter.

Their preferred diet is tufted grass, but in times of shortage, they browse, eating bark, twigs, leaves, buds, fruit, and roots.

This was not always so, and the current situation is a result of their populations being fragmented when hunters exterminated them throughout the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

Cape mountain zebra foals generally move away from their maternal herds sometime between the ages of 13 and 37 months.

However, with Hartmann's mountain zebra, mares try to expel their foals when they are aged around 14 to 16 months.

[9] The main threats to the species are the loss of habitat to agriculture, hunting, and persecution.

However, consistent and vigorous conservation measures have succeeded in reversing the decline, and in 1998, the population of the Cape mountain zebra was estimated to have increased to some 1200, about 540 in national parks, 490 in provincial nature reserves, and 165 in other reserves.

[10] Though both mountain zebra subspecies are currently protected in national parks, they are still threatened.