We have many zebras on our 36,000 acre private game reserve, and while they are not part of the “Big 5” group (which is a very silly and archaic way of compartmentalising the wealth of African fauna), there are not many animals such as the zebra that are as well known and as typical for African wildlife. They are extremely strong, sturdy, and yet elegant and beautiful animals. It is fascinating to see a large herd of zebras running along their “friends”, the wildebeest, when on the run from danger.
Please see below a mother lovingly caring for her young calf, on our Moditlo Private Game Reserve. Very cute.
Here some information on zebras and their most unique features, the stripes:
It was often believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes, as zebras often have white underbellies. New evidence shows that the animal’s background color is in fact black and the white stripes and bellies are the additional feature. So what caused the appearance of the stripes? What is their use?
The stripes are usually vertically located on the head, neck, forequarters, and main body, with horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the zebra.
The more traditional explanations relate to camouflage.
1. The vertical striping may help the zebra melt into the patterns of long grass by replicating its shape. Also, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to a visual grey, and as most predators are mostly color blind, this gives them an edge.
2. The stripes probably help to confuse predators by a thing called “motion dazzle”— by virtues of a group of zebras standing or moving fast together appear as one large mass of moving stripes, making it harder for a lion or other predator to identify a specific target, which they need to do to go for a kill.
3. The stripes may serve as identification help for one another. But this is pure theory, as no proof has showed that zebras indeed recognise each other by virtue of their striping. But what is true that every zebra has a unique striping pattern, like a human’s fingerprint pattern.
4. Recent research shows that the stripes
are very effective in repelling flies. A 2012 experiment conducted in Hungary proved that zebra-striped models were nearly minimally attractive to tabanid horseflies. These flies are attracted to linearly polarized light, but black and white stripes disrupt this attractive pattern. So the theory goes that by the process of “elimination” (Darwin-type selection process) random zebras (originally all black) who happened to be born with stripier appearance would have a longer life expectancy as they are more left alone by blood-sucking flies, and then they would pass on these genes to their offspring, perpetuating the pattern.
And, of course: the zebra with its distinctive stripes gave birth to the term “zebra crossing”. All the way over from Africa … 😉
Text: Bernard
