Black and White Striped Horses

Have you ever thought about Zebras, I m sure you haven’t much. I never gave them much thought, they are a horse like animal that lives in Africa, and that was the end of my thought about Zebras.

I have  discovered some interesting  facts about them, as  you  know  they are  black and  white  striped or is it white  with black  stripes,  which is  it? Scientists are  trying to find out, but in the  womb of the   mother zebra they are  brown or  black, then  the  white stripes are added  later just  before  birth.

The next thing to find out is, why are they striped? This is their protection in several ways; first when resting and lying down in the tall grass they are hard for the lions or other predators to spot them. The  African lion is  the main predator of  the  Zebra, one  problem the lion has  is he  is nearsighted so in a large herd of Zebras all he  sees is a large mass of  black and  white  stripes. He  can’t  pick out an individual target, but if  one breaks away from the herd and  starts running the Lion can out run  him and  bring  him  down and have  lunch.

The next  problem is tabanids in Africa  there are  millions  of  them so the animals  need  some kind of  protection from them and  they bite and sting so many of  them it  will keep the animal from eating. Oh by the way tabanids are horse flies, big ones.

The  scientist found  that the  width  of  the  stripe  does  make a difference and  the  narrower the  stripe the more  protection from  the flies. This is because of how the light is polarized as it reflects off of the white stripe. That is what keeps the horse flies away from the Zebra, is the way the stripes radiate the polarized light.

Another thing  that  was  discovered, it is the  female  fly  that is the  blood  sucker. They attack black or dark brown horses more than white, this is because the polarized light reflected off their coat looks to them like water and they go to water to lay their eggs and get a drink. This is why the zebra is protected by his black and white stripes.

Amazing isn’t it? the ways that God  devises  to protect  his creatures  on  this earth.