HORSES IN ZEBRA CLOTHING – COULD THIS BE THE NEW FLY CONTROL MECHANISM?

Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the age-old question about why zebras have stripes. There have always been four main hypotheses:

1. camouflage to avoid large predators;
2. a social function (like individual recognition);
3. thermoregulation, with stripes setting up convection currents along the animal’s back; and
4. preventing biting fly attacks.

According to scientists, only the last point stands up to scrutiny after doing practical research – as it appears strips make for poor landing strips for flies, causing confusion on where to land.

Researchers described experiments demonstrating that horse flies have a difficult time landing on zebras while easily landing on uniformly colored horses. In one experiment, the researchers put striped pattern day sheets on horses and observed that fewer flies landed on them than when the same horses wore single-color coats.

“We showed that horse flies approach zebras and uniformly colored horses at similar rates but that they fail to land on zebras – or striped horse coats – because they fail to decelerate properly, and so fly past them or literally bump into them and bounce off,” said behavioral ecologist Tim Caro of the University of California-Davis, lead author of the research published in the journal PLOS ONE.

African horse flies carry diseases such as trypanosomiasis and African horse sickness that can be fatal. Perhaps the key is to dress our horses like Zebras? Or just look for the busiest day sheet to keep the confusion at a maximum!

Content Credit: Forbes Africa