Is a zebra black with white stripes, or the other way around? We have the answer.

But the zebra... is it black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?! Attention, attention: we’ve found the answer!

The zebra is black with white stripes.

The zebra is black with white stripes. We’re not the ones claiming it, but rather researchers and zoologists who have provided an answer to this riddle. 

Although the white part of a zebra’s body actually predominates over the black, zebra experts believe that in the past the zebra’s ancestors were entirely black and that the white stripes appeared later.

The only question left is why the white stripes appeared in the first place. Well, the zebra super-experts have an answer to that too. 
They discovered that the reason for the appearance of the white stripes is that white attracts fewer insects such as horseflies, which feed on blood and can spread disease. 

Black zebras that had a few white patches had a better chance over time of surviving epidemics! As good old Darwin taught us, the zebras that survived then mated with one another, encouraging the birth of zebras that became increasingly white (and increasingly less bothered by insects).

Okay, okay, you may already be wondering: “But why did the white coat develop into stripes rather than spots?!” And here is the answer: according to American scientists, a striped coat confuses the tsetse fly. The fly’s compound eyes do not allow it to perceive perspective and therefore to distinguish the shape and meaning of a striped outline. To a fly’s eyes, zebras do not appear to be anything recognizable, and so they leave them alone!

You can check the truth of this theory for yourself by joining us on a trip to Namibia to spot lots of striped zebras. Take a look at OUR NAMIBIA ADVENTURE TRIP.