Science & technology | Why zebra are striped

Horse sense

Are zebra stripes just an elaborate insect repellent?

Imagine what it looks like to a fly
|3 min read

“HOW the zebra got his stripes” sounds like the title of one of Rudyard Kipling's “Just So” stories. Sadly, it isn't, so the question has, instead, been left to zoologists. But they, too, have let their imaginations rip. Some have suggested camouflage. (Charles Darwin pooh-poohed that idea, pointing out that zebra graze in the open, not amid thick vegetation where a striped pattern might break up their outlines.) Others suggest they are a way to display an individual's fitness. Irregular stripes would let potential mates know that someone was not up to snuff. One researcher proposed that stripes are to zebra what faces are to people, allowing them to recognise each other, since every animal has a unique stripe-print. Another even speculated that predators might get dizzy watching a herd of stripes gallop by.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Horse sense”

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