Central Coast cyclist chased by zebra on mountain road. ‘I started pedaling super fast’

Encounters with wildlife in the mountains above Santa Barbara are not uncommon.

Spend enough time, and eventually you are going to see a coyote or a bobcat, a rattlesnake, maybe even a mountain lion or a bear.

One certainly doesn’t expect to see a zebra.

But that’s what Marcos Chavez encountered on a recent bike ride.

“The zebra started running at me,” Chavez said. “It looked like air came out of its nostrils.”

Chavez took video of the zebra, in the middle of the road on West Camino Cielo, at about 2 p.m. Sunday.

The day began like most Sundays for Chavez, a Carpinteria resident. He started his bike ride at Handlebar and headed out for what would become a 4-hour trek.

He biked up Highway 101, up Refugio Canyon, then east along West Camino Cielo toward Highway 154. The scenic ridgeline access road traverses the Santa Ynez Mountain Range, offering views of the Channel Islands, Goleta and the Santa Ynez Valley including Cachuma Lake

Just past Lizard’s Mouth and the nearby shooting range, Chavez came across the striped beast.

Chavez was immediately concerned. Although there were cars stopped in the road, their occupants were at least shielded by metal.

Chavez was exposed on his bike.

“As soon as I rolled up, the zebra, he saw me,” Chavez told Noozhawk. “He heard me and he saw me, and he kept looking at me.”

A person in one of the cars approached him and offered to turn his vehicle to shield Chavez from the zebra. Chavez was concerned that if he rode his bike past the zebra, the animal would chase him.

“I was not protected in a car like everyone else,” Chavez said.

The 48-year-old small business owner said his daughter volunteers at a donkey farm and he knows zebra donkeys can be aggressive.

Chavez went for it, but the zebra found a path to chase him, and the animal did.

“I jumped on my bike and started pedaling super fast,” Chavez said. “He took three steps, but then the zebra slipped and fell.”

Chavez got away and lived to tell his story.

It’s unclear what happened to the zebra. Some locals said the zebra’s name is Maynard, and lives at a local ranch.

Santa Barbara County Animal Control had not responded to requests for comment as of Monday. Chavez suspects the zebra escaped from a nearby property.

This isn’t the first zebra sighting in the Santa Barbara hills. In a post from nine years ago on Reddit, someone reported seeing a zebra on West Camino Cielo, and there have been numerous other reports in recent weeks.

Chavez won’t forget the first thought that rushed to his brain when he rolled up on the animal.

“I was like ‘What the heck is a zebra doing here?’ ” Chavez said.

This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM.