“Function of Zebra Strips is to Prevent Biting Flies”

The function of black and white stripes on Zebra is to prevent attacks by biting flies, research proved.

“Several studies now indicate that preventing attack by biting flies is the function of zebra stripes”, the research report maintained.

Scientists believe that a function of a zebra’s stripes is to deter insects, so a team or researchers painted black and white stripes on several cows and discovered that it reduced the number of biting flies landing on the cows by more than 50%.
https://t.co/eFS9c5PYS8 pic.twitter.com/I9li9AQPkq

— Scientia (@MagScientia) April 6, 2021

An experiment was conducted on several cows to find out the function of these strips.

Six Japanese black cows were assigned to treatments using a 3×3 Latin-square design. The treatments were black-and-white painted stripes, black painted stripes, and no stripes (all-black body surface).

The selected cows were familiar with the experimenting area and grazed freely during the study.

“Three of the six cows were used in August and September 2017 and the other three in October 2018”, the report read.

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To conduct the study, cows were arranged side-by-side and tied with a rope that was long enough for them to move their heads freely.

The observations were made twice a day and a total of six observations were made for each cow.

The study revealed that painting zebra-like stripes on cows can decrease the incidence of biting flies landing on individuals by 50%.

As per the report, biting flies are attracted to their host animals by odors, shape, movement, brightness, color, polarization, and body temperature.

“In accordance with the results of our study, earlier studies reported that biting flies were less likely to land on black-and-white striped surfaces”, the report added.

The research was uploaded on Twitter and retweeted by Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry too.