Posted on 11/21/2021 11:15:41 AM PST by BenLurkin
The stunning black-and-white coloration of the zebra's hide stands out in stark contrast with the dry, brown-and-green, treeless grasslands and savannah woodlands of their home territories of East and southern Africa, according to the African Wildlife Foundation.
These stripes are unique to each individual. There are three zebra species living today — the plains zebra (Equus quagga), the mountain zebra (E. zebra) and the Grevy's zebra (E. grevyi) — and each of those species has a different striping pattern, too. For some, the darker portions of their hide are black, whereas others have browner coloring, and some have stripes only on their bodies but not on their legs.
Although zebras have black skin, different developmental processes determine their fur color, just like a light-skinned person can have dark hair, Caro said. In fact, zebras actually have more light-colored hair than dark — their bellies are usually light — so it may seem that zebras are white with black stripes.
But that's not the case. Here's why: Every piece of hair — both light and dark — grows from a follicle filled with melanocyte cells, according to a 2005 review in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. These cells produce a pigment that determines the color of hair and skin. This pigment is known as melanin; a lot of melanin leads to darker colors, like dark brown or black, while less melanin leads to lighter colors, such as hazel or blond, Live Science previously reported. Zebras' black fur is chock-full of melanin, but melanin is absent from white fur, in essence, because the follicles that make up the stripes of white hair have "turned off" melanocytes, meaning they don't churn out pigment.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Prehistoric Democrats going on about white equine privilege.
As far I knew, it’s black with white stripes.
The idea was that since the tail is black, that was the zebra’s base color
Same with the mane.
Correct. It took 20 comments to get there, but yeah, it confuses the eye of the predator.
Maye there is no answer. It’s a chicken/egg thing.
“Doesn’t look like blending with the local environment....looks pretty darn bold to me.”
Because you have color vision.
If you saw in red tinged monochrome like a lion, it would be different.
I am looking at my rug right now and it is definitely white with black stripes.
Yes!
Both colors matter.
Thank goodness for zebras. If it weren’t for them, what would they put a picture of in children’s alphabet books for the letter “Z”?
Zebras are meant to blend in with each other, so that predators are confused when they see a herd. One of their collective names is a dazzle. It helps the young, which are the usual targets, to blend in with the adults. This is according to seasoned safari guides, but there might be more to it than that.
No...trying looking at that photo in monochrome gray scale...still stands out boldly...besides scent is the primary detection sense, by far, for the big cats...visually motion detection more important than color.
That makes the most sense as they are herd animals.
Doesn’t look like blending with the local environment....looks pretty darn bold to me.
*****************I think Steve was being sarcastic. At least I hope he was.
Like the dazzle paint schemes for naval ships pre-radar. Radar isn’t fooled by paint schemes.
They’re just black and white striped.
Dark with white
Few equine are actual white
yup
The guy on the left is Frank Gorshin who also played “The Riddler” on the campy Batman TV show, “Same Bat time, same Bat channel.”
I always thought zebras mimicked warships that were painted in confusing patterns so the lions got optically confused.
I just looked at my rug and I think our old dog is having bladder control problems.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.