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  • Hi, everybody!

  • You're just in time.

  • Squeaks and I are looking into an animal mystery.

  • We were looking through our big book of animals, and the last animal in the book caught our

  • eye.

  • It's a zebra!

  • You've probably heard of them before -- they look a lot like horses, but they have black

  • and white stripes!

  • Have you ever wondered why zebras have these special stripes?

  • To find out, let's look a little closer at the life of a zebra.

  • Zebras are closely related to horses, and they are like them in a lot of ways!

  • They look like horses, of course, and run like them too.

  • They eat grass like horses do, and they even sound a bit like them.

  • But zebras are also different from horses in some important ways.

  • For one thing, horses can be found in many parts of the world, but wild zebras only live

  • in Africa.

  • Zebras also have hair on the back of their neck -- called a mane -- that's shorter

  • and spikier than it is on horses.

  • And of course, horses come in many different colors and patterns, but all zebras wear a

  • coat of black and white stripes!

  • But still, not all zebras are exactly the same.

  • There are actually three different species, or special types, of zebra!

  • Two of these species are named after the kind of place they live in.

  • The Plains Zebra lives on plains, where it's mostly flat and there's a lot of grass and

  • other plants to eat.

  • Then there's the Mountain Zebra, which lives -- you guessed it! -- in the mountains.

  • The last species is called Grévy's GRAVY'S Zebra, and it only lives on a few special

  • grasslands in Africa.

  • But all types of zebras have their famous stripes, and scientists have always wondered

  • what these stripes were for.

  • This is what we're curious about today!

  • Let's look at a few ideas about how these stripes might help zebras to survive in the

  • wild.

  • Some scientists used to think that zebras could use their stripes to recognize each

  • other.

  • It turns out that each zebra has a unique pattern of stripes, just like how every person

  • -- including you! -- has a unique set of fingerprints on their fingertips.

  • Maybe, by looking at each other's stripes, zebras could recognize each other, and their

  • families.

  • But you don't recognize your friends by their fingerprints.

  • So, we're not sure that zebras use their stripes that way, either.

  • After all, zebras have many other ways to recognize each other, like by their smell

  • or by the sounds they make.

  • So, scientists have also thought that zebras might use their stripes to hide from predators.

  • Lions and hyenas are two predators that often hunt zebras.

  • So some have thought that the zebras' long stripes might help them stay hidden in the

  • tall grass.

  • But after looking closer, scientists noticed that the zebras' stripes didn't stop lions

  • and hyenas from finding them.

  • Instead, the predators used their noses to find zebras by smell -- they weren't fooled

  • by the zebras' stripes at all.

  • So, maybe the stripes do something else!

  • And, there is one other animal that zebras need to keep away: horseflies!

  • Horseflies are big, pesky biting flies, and they often bite animals like zebras, kind

  • of like how mosquitoes bite people.

  • But scientists have noticed that horseflies don't seem to like zebra stripes.

  • Something about the pattern of the black and white stripes makes horseflies confused, so

  • they stay away from them.

  • So maybe that's it!

  • Today, some scientists think that the stripes help zebras avoid getting bitten by horseflies.

  • The stripes might work kind of like a built in bug repellant

  • In fact, it turns out that zebras have the most stripes in places they really don't

  • want horseflies to bite them, like on their faces.

  • And many other people have started using the answer to this animal mystery to help protect

  • horses, too.

  • Some farmers have started putting zebra striped coats on their horses to keep horseflies away.

  • What an amazing way to use what we've learned to help our animal friends.

  • It's important to remember that there could be more than one right answer to a question

  • -- especially when you're dealing with nature and science.

  • So, scientists are still looking at all of the other things that stripes might help a

  • zebra to do.

  • Maybe you have some good ideas of what these stripes could do, too.

  • Try using your science skills to make your own guess!

  • Ask a grown-up to help you to leave your ideas below, or send us an email at kids@scishow.com

  • We'll see you next time, here at the fort!

Hi, everybody!

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为什么斑马有条纹(Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? | Animal Science for Kids)

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    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 05 月 10 日
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