Page 94 - The Mini Horse Magazine 2023 No 1

Zebras
Why do

INFORMATIVE have stripes?

Savvy research has revealed how
zebra stripes work.

We've known for some time that zebras don't
have stripes because of predators, but because
of parasites. Annoying birds seem to dislike
zebra patterns. Enthusiastic zoologists from
the University of Bristol decided to investigate
and dressed the horses in various outfits for
this purpose. They found out that ovadi really
don't need stripes that optically break up the
silhouette of the animal.

Some time ago, we figured out that zebras don't has actually been repeatedly proven that the
have stripes for camouflage from predators, annoying horseflies (family Tabanidae), which
but from parasites. It sounds incredible, but it are very aptly called "horseflies" in English,
avoid stripes. But it is not clear what exactly
bothers them about it. Is it the thickness of
the stripes? Is the contrast of black and white
essential? Or what exactly does it believe in? Text written: Jarmila Podzemská, Photographs provided by: Tim Caro, University of Bristol

The team led by Tim Caro from the British
University of Bristol was looking for an answer
to this remarkable question. They are one of the
ones who figured out that stripes are against
parasites. Even now, it was research about
which stories have been told for many years.
Scientists made clothes for horses with various
patterns of black and white, disguised the horses
as zebras, and then watched how the animals
would react to them. It must seem pretty crazy
to an independent observer. But science is like
that sometimes.

94 | Miniature Horse Magazine • Issue 1/2023