1117

submitted 4 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

99 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] X@piefed.world 55 points 4 days ago

“Motherfucker, do you see the way I look?! Shit ain’t for the insta, that’s for sure. I’m quite visible to you so you have a long enough time to be getting far the fuck away from me.”

[-] underisk@lemmy.ml 20 points 4 days ago

I thought the stripes were actually camouflage and they’re just monochromatic because the things they’re hiding from have poor color vision.

[-] bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 40 points 4 days ago

Latest theory I heard was:

A 2014 study found a correlation between striping and overlap with horse and tsetse fly populations and activity. Other studies have found that zebras are rarely targeted by these insect species. Caro and colleagues (2019) studied captive zebras and horses and observed that neither could deter flies from a distance, but zebra stripes kept flies from landing, both on zebras and horses dressed in zebra print coats. […] White or light stripes painted on dark bodies have also been found to reduce fly irritations in both cattle and humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra

[-] crater2150@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

White or light stripes painted on dark bodies have also been found to reduce fly irritations in both cattle and humans.

A study about painting stripes on cattle won an Ig-Nobel Price in 2025: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkjzxrrkd5o (article has a photo of a painted cow)

[-] pulsey@feddit.org 19 points 4 days ago

brb getting a full body tattoo

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago

The truth is we don't actually know because the zebras don't want us to:

So, the question why zebras have stripes have proven very difficult and not without risks – Stephen Cobb has been bitten in the arm and admitted to hospital twice. Despite the extra vigour of recent work, the answer remains inconclusive.