The lead author of the study, Amanda Melin from the Calgary University, said that her team discovered that the zebras don’t use their stripes for camouflage or social purposes, as many theories say.
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Melin conducted the study with Tim Caro, a UC Davis professor of wildlife biology, Donald Kline, a professor emeritus of psychology from the University of Calgary, whose research is focused on vision and perception, and Chihiro Hiramatsu of Kyushu University, Japan. He noted that even Charles Darwin and British naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace engaged in hot debates over the issue. Researchers also measured the light contrast, width, and brightness of the black-and-white patterns to estimate the distance from which stripes would be visible to humans and predators.
Zebra stripes have been boggling scientists for decades. He had previously been involved in other studies that pointed to the possibility that the real reason why zebras have stripes might be to protect them from tiny pests like biting flies, rather than large predators, like lions.
In order to prove that the hypothesis was not accurate, the researchers took pictures of zebras in Tanzania and then they changed the images in order to simulate how they are seen by their predators, which are mainly spotted hyenas and lions and how they are seen by other zebras as well.
DailyMail reported that, to human eyes their distinctive black and white stripes seem to offer little camouflage in the drab surroundings of the African Savannah.
“The most longstanding hypothesis for zebra striping is crypsis, or camouflaging, but until now the question has always been framed through human eyes”. By analyzing the distances at which the three animals can see zebras, the team of scientists concluded that their stripes serve no goal as a means of camouflage, as predators that are after their next meal would be able to tell that zebras are near because they would be able to hear and smell their prey. They ran calculations to find the distances at which three different animals, spotted hyenas, lions, and other zebras, can see zebras, under varying lighting conditions. According to a new study, zebras are not equipped with stripes to fool predators. Melin is a biological anthropology assistant professor. The researchers proved that the theory was wrong, and that in the open areas where the zebras spend most of their time, the predators can see them as easy as they can see other preys with colored hides like the topi and the waterbuck.
The researchers came to know that zebra stripes can only be distinguished from 29 feet during a moonless night or in woodland or low-brush environment.
The recent study was published January 22 in the online journal PLOS ONE.
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The research does not actually prove that stripes aren’t used for camouflage, only that they are not very good at it.
