What color is a zebra and why she strips

• What color zebra and why it strips

In fact, a zebra can be black and white. It depends on the individual. If you can not identify a single animal from the overall color, which occupies 60-70% of body surface area, determined by coloring with the head, or rather, his nose, and he was a zebra black. Consequently, it turns black with white stripes. But there are individuals who have 70% of the body are white, and such zebras are white with black stripes.

With regard to why zebras stripes, there are several hypotheses. According to one of them, the band helps animals recognize each other, because these figures are just as unique as finger patterns in humans. However, horses that are the closest relatives of zebra, cope with this task and without bands, guided by the smell and voice. Moreover, they, like zebras, remember all your relatives with whom ever encountered. But they do not have such markings!

The second version is that the band helped to disguise from predators. Indeed, from the herd it is very difficult to isolate the individual animal, because the patterns crushed body into separate fragments. If the zebras move in front of the eyes there is a chaotic set of black and white spots, and to single out one individual becomes even more difficult.

The third hypothesis states that the band - it's a way to protect against blood-sucking insects. Zoologists have long noticed that zebras sits less than tsetse flies, therefore, they are less susceptible to parasitic diseases that carry these insects. In 2012, the Swedish and Hungarian scientists have confirmed this assumption. They are exposed to the sun casts of animals of different color, covering them with a thin layer of glue. And then count how many insects have chosen one or another "bait." It turned out that most of them are attracted dark colors, then - white and striped casts ranked last. Moreover, it was found that the thinner the band and how they are arranged vertically, the smaller the insect attracted a "model". Scientists have suggested that this is due to the polarization of light. It is very important for the insect, as it helps them to recognize its position in space. The presence of the body white stripes leads them astray, as the light is reflected equally in all directions from the white areas.

But there is another theory - "temperature". In 2015, the University of California experts compared the painting of zebras living in different parts of Africa, analyzed the environmental factors and made a computer model. It showed: the warmer the climate, the more white zebra stripes and bright coloring, and vice versa. So scientists have suggested that the band helped zebras escape from the heat.

The black "spots" hotter white, which creates near the body of the animal streams of air and contributes to its cooling. It turns out a kind of natural air-conditioning. If other inhabitants savannah body temperature is approximately 32, 5 °, zebra it ranges of about 29, 2 °. But why zebras took extra cooling? The reason is related to diet. These animals eat more coarse and dense nutrient-poor food, which is why they have to stay in the sun longer than the others. A band to help avoid overheating.

Thus, scientists still can not say exactly why zebras stripes. The more attempts are made, the more questions arise. It is possible that single answer does not exist.