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 ...
You must know, Billy, Ethel, and Studebaker Hawk!
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”?
We’d be more familiar with the zokor, zorella, and zorro.
Oh yeah.
But I think it’s “Studebaker Hoch.”
NFL Zebras are all blind. Not born that way, but when they get their stripes, they mysteriously can no longer see.
Ain’t nature great!!
The fact that only the stripes are black, on a white background is obvious. They are white with black stripes.
It’s amazing how the hairs know what color to be depending on what part of the body they are on.
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It’s an animal so weird looking that if it didn’t exist, and a child drew a picture of a “horse” with black and white stripes, one would tell the child they have a vivid imagination.
🤣 Beat me to it!
I’m not sure how dazzle paint works out in the ocean. But we should bring it back.
It’s not actually for camoflauge, it’s so predators can’t get a visual lock on an individual within a herd.
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Interestingly, the same concept was used in WWII to camouflage ships by painting irregular patterns on the hull to break up the silhouette.
i triple dog dare anyone to ask stevie wonder this question... 😁...
I saw a program on this, and the quick answer is that the submariners missed when aiming their torpedos through the periscope. It has to do with properly identifying the exact size and speed of the ship cuz ya gotta lead ‘em. Please somebody correct me with my thanks, but this answer was satisfying to me.
What’s black and white and red all over?
A sunburned Zebra.
&>)
There are zebras who are white with black stripes.
These white zebras are known as “evil zebras”.
But if you add a little dazzle camp as I did with Photoshop, she does look more warlike:
We had a "Did you just see that?" moment then I turned around and went back!
Not what I expected to see standing on a hillside grazing in Vermont. All those horses are white up there, you know?
Is your butt white with black stripes too? Maybe this whole thing started with a shortage on TP and they grew the black stripes to hide the fact.
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