The Black-and-White Zebra: Have Biologists Finally Found an Answer to this Color Choice?
What is the reason behind a zebra having a monochrome color choice? In other words, what is the reason behind zebras sporting a coat striped in layers of black-and-white? Has this thought ever crossed your mind?
It seems to have crossed the minds of biologists of the University of California who claim to have finally satiated this particular “thought.”
According to them, the black-and-white color selection is for warding off Tsetse flies that carry the sources for different, deadly diseases.
In order to add more worthiness to this claim, the biologists have pointed out that the array of black-and-white stripes is narrow in the head (around the snout) and the front legs. These are the most likely places where the flies might launch their “attack for blood.” Hence this monochrome combination is narrow at those places.
The test subjects for the biologists were not zebras alone. Horses and assess were also included in their research and the results of the study seem to point to only one thing: The stripes are present as defense against fly bites.
The study was conducted under the leadership of Tim Caro, who is a biologist at the University of California, Davis.
The human brain is quite unpredictable when it comes to thinking about a myriad of things. So will humans resort to monochrome wardrobes for staying safe from mosquito bites and the resultant diseases? Well, they have to wait before coming to a decision simply because this study is no conclusive evidence with the biologists themselves claiming that the result may be the answer to the longstanding query as to why is the coat of zebras striped black-and-white?
