Scientists learned in recent years why zebras have black and white stripes — to avoid biting flies.
Scientists learned in recent years why zebras have black and white stripes — to avoid biting flies. But a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE probes the question further: What is it about stripes that actually disrupts a biting fly’s ability to land on a zebra and suck its blood?
University of California, Davis, Professor Tim Caro and Martin How of the University of Bristol led a series of new experiments to better understand how stripes manipulate the behavior of biting flies as they attempt to come in to land on zebras.
Taking place on a horse farm in Great Britain that kept both zebras and horses, the experiments entailed:
- Close-up observation of zebras as flies attempted to land on them
- Detailed videos to record flight trajectories as the flies cruised close to the zebras
- Dressing the horses and zebras sequentially in black, white and then black-and-white striped coats.
Read more at University of California - Davis
Image: Joren Bruggink of Aeres University of Applied Sciences, at left, and Jai Lake of the University of Bristol investigate how horse flies behave around horses wearing different colored coats. This was part of an experiment led by UC Davis, focused on why zebra stripes are so good at warding off biting flies. (Credit: Tim Caro/UC Davis)
