How zebras got their stripes is normally the stuff of myths but scientists think they may have found the real reason these animals evolved their patterns.
Biologists from Hungary and Sweden believe the stripes help prevent attacks from blood sucking flies. They think the narrow striped pattern reflects the light in such a way to make the animals unattractive to the vampire-like pests.
First looking at horses with dark coloured coats, they found the light was reflected in such a way that it created planes of horizontal light, attracting the flies. Horses with white coats however, reflected light in many different planes of light, making them seem not quite as tasty to the bloodsuckers.
To test how a zebra’s striped pattern attracted flies, scientists used white boards, blackboards and striped boards covered with insect glue and tested how flies reacted when these boards were left in a field. The striped board was found to attract even fewer flies than the white board. They found the narrower the stripes; the more unattractive the boards were to flies. Narrow stripes most closely resemble the actual zebra pattern seen in nature.
The experiment was repeated with life-sized horse shaped models in the field and found the same results.
University of Manchester evolutionary biologist, Prof. Matthew Cobb, said this experiment could not exclude other explanations for zebras having stripes so perhaps it isn’t time to sacrifice the myths just yet.
