WHY DO ZEBRAS HAVE STRIPES?

Scientists think they finally know why zebras have stripes. There had been four main hypotheses about the advantages zebras accrued by evolving stripes: camouflage to avoid large predators; a social function like individual recognition; it keeps them cool, with stripes setting up convection currents along the animal’s back; and thwarting biting fly attacks. The last hypothesis may be the right – the stripes confuse the blood-sucking flies that try land on zebras. Researchers at the University of California-Davis conducted experiments demonstrating that horse flies have a difficult time landing on zebras, but no problem landing on solid-colored horses. In one experiment, the researchers put cloth coats bearing striped patterns on horses and observed that fewer flies landed on them than when the same horses wore single-color coats. They found that horse flies approach zebras and solid-colored horses at similar rates but that they fail to land on zebras – or the striped horse coats – because they fail to decelerate properly and so fly past them or literally bump into them and bounce off.
* We can all sleep better tonight knowing this information.
* I thought they had stripes because polka dots made them look silly.
* Or ’cause stripes make them look slimmer.
* Thwarting biting fly attacks. So … why don’t ALL animals have stripes?
* The University’s next experiment: Why do dogs eat poop?