Why Do Zebras Have Stripes?

[longknife]

Care to guess?

You'll get a kick out of the answer @ Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Riddle Finally Solved - D-brief | DiscoverMagazine.com

 

[Granny]

Rats! I was going to say "because they don't have polka dots?"

 

[Truthseeker420]

confuse predators?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

yeah I read that also...it confuses biting flies, and thus helps keep them off of them.

 

[rightwinger]

Stripes make them look thinner

 

[JenCoop202]

So they don't get confused as horses

 

[PostmodernProph]

the ones with bulls-eyes, for some reason, turned out to be an evolutionary dead end......

 

[SmedlyButler]

Care to guess?

You'll get a kick out of the answer @ Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Riddle Finally Solved - D-brief | DiscoverMagazine.com

I have reservations about accepting this new theory as the final answer. Natural Selection is so very fond of Camouflage and is so adept and artistic in it's rendering that I still lean towards camouflage strategy as the main drver of the striping. Don't forget Lions are color blind. In the long grasses of the Savanah that may have existed when the stripes were evolved the black and white stripes may have perfectly mimicked shadow and light to the predator's eye.Below are a couple of examples of Nature's magical mystery optical illusions.

This is a leaf Butterfly, imagine it in a wooded setting and the trouble a predator would have in spotting it!

Believe it or not this is a Squirrel. Mother nature is such a show-off at times.

 

[MaryL]

First of all, Zebras are not multi hued, they are black and white, bi-tonal...Deflecting insect bites ( or the diseases they cause) isn't going to help that species. I can't help think of Dazzle camouflage used back in the early days of the 20th century, the theory behind it was the disruption of patterns actually fit in to the background, and confuses the enemy/predators. Or something like that. Apparently, it works for zebras.

 

[bianco]

So Sheriff Joe will feed them?

 

[Hollie]

Because the gods have a sense of humor.

 

[dilloduck]

Scientists have lied to us again ?