Scientists researching why zebras have stripes have found that the stripes confuse blood-sucking flies.
Story from The Guardian:
Why the zebra got its stripes.
In an experiment that involved zebras, horses, and horses dressed up as zebras, they found that Tabanid flies (think: march flies) didn't land on zebras or on the zebra-print horse coats as frequently as they did on naked horses or the exposed parts of the dressed-up horses.
Do I need to make myself some zebra-print clothes? It's not all good news - the horseflies in the experiment still buzzed around the zebras, they just didn't land. They either veered away or bounced off. I don't really want march flies buzzing around me and bouncing off me.
4 comments:
Mother Nature at her best again...hugs, Julierose
You're right. It's the buzzing around that makes march flies so horrible. Once they land you can whack 'em.
How interesting!
I saw that article in the Guardian also. Isn't it amazing that people could figure out the zebra's secret?
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