Zebra’s striped skin is what their bug repellent is. Scientists first thought that their stripes where to get away from predators, because in a herd, it’s hard to recognize what one zebra is! The study was led by a group of Swedish Scientists. The first clue they found out, is that dark horses got bit more than light colored or white horses. Since we know that the zebras are born black, and get their white stripes as they grow, so the made a theory that that is why zebras aren’t attracted to flies. They tested it by taking a black horse, and took white paint, and painted him so he would have white stripes like zebras. Their result was that not many flies went to bite him, but they did go for the rest of the horses that were not black and white. Even though the theory makes 100% sense, it has never been tested on a real zebra. If it is like this, then another question the scientist will have is why did zebras develop the stripes and horses didn’t, even though they are close relatives. Scientists think because in Africa, where the zebras are from, are a lot of horseflies, and there aren’t much horses there, the zebras had to get the stripes, and horses didn’t!
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