Zebra
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Lisbeth
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Re: Zebra
Take a look: British scientists dressed up horses to find out why zebras have stripes
Jay Caboz , Business Insider SA
Feb 21, 2019, 02:04 PM
Joren Bruggink [left] and Jai Lake [right] investigating how horse flies behave around horses wearing different coloured coats. Source: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol
The observations found those horses wearing striped patterns had far lower rates of flies touching and landing on coats than the same horses wearing plain black or plain white. Yet, there were no differences in attack rates on their naked heads.
The scientists recorded the activity of the flies on video and tracked their movements.
Examples of horsefly flight trajectories around domestic horses (a-c) and captive plains zebra (d-f). Red line indicates the flight path and dark red dots show position at 0.1s intervals. Red arrows indicate the direction of flight. Blue stars show points of contact or landings on the equid. Blue arrows show the end position of the approach and start position of the leave phases of flight. These markers are associated with manoeuvres that show changes in both direction and speed, and where this could not be reliably identified (e.g. approach in a) the data were omitted from analysis.
Proportionately more flies touched rather than landed on zebra coats.
Taken together, these findings indicate that, up close, striped surfaces prevented flies from making a controlled landing.
"This reduced ability to land on the zebra’s coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach,"said Dr Martin How, Royal Society University Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences. "Stripes may dazzle flies in some way once they are close enough to see them with their low-resolution eyes."
The paper suggests that this could be the main reason for why zebras have evolved to have stripes over confusing predators, social interaction, or because it makes them cooler in the African heat.
The paper goes on to say the exact mechanism by which stripes prevent flies from obtaining a blood meal is less well understood.
The data is limited in that it was conducted in the United Kingdom rather than around biting flies from Africa. Other limitations included that the path of the flies could only be seen in two dimensions from video recordings and that the horse coats were made of different materials, the UK media outlet Guardian reported.
Jay Caboz , Business Insider SA
Feb 21, 2019, 02:04 PM
Joren Bruggink [left] and Jai Lake [right] investigating how horse flies behave around horses wearing different coloured coats. Source: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol
The observations found those horses wearing striped patterns had far lower rates of flies touching and landing on coats than the same horses wearing plain black or plain white. Yet, there were no differences in attack rates on their naked heads.
The scientists recorded the activity of the flies on video and tracked their movements.
Examples of horsefly flight trajectories around domestic horses (a-c) and captive plains zebra (d-f). Red line indicates the flight path and dark red dots show position at 0.1s intervals. Red arrows indicate the direction of flight. Blue stars show points of contact or landings on the equid. Blue arrows show the end position of the approach and start position of the leave phases of flight. These markers are associated with manoeuvres that show changes in both direction and speed, and where this could not be reliably identified (e.g. approach in a) the data were omitted from analysis.
Proportionately more flies touched rather than landed on zebra coats.
Taken together, these findings indicate that, up close, striped surfaces prevented flies from making a controlled landing.
"This reduced ability to land on the zebra’s coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach,"said Dr Martin How, Royal Society University Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences. "Stripes may dazzle flies in some way once they are close enough to see them with their low-resolution eyes."
The paper suggests that this could be the main reason for why zebras have evolved to have stripes over confusing predators, social interaction, or because it makes them cooler in the African heat.
The paper goes on to say the exact mechanism by which stripes prevent flies from obtaining a blood meal is less well understood.
The data is limited in that it was conducted in the United Kingdom rather than around biting flies from Africa. Other limitations included that the path of the flies could only be seen in two dimensions from video recordings and that the horse coats were made of different materials, the UK media outlet Guardian reported.
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Richprins
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Re: Zebra
Kruger Sightings
Verified account @LatestKruger
Mar 8
15:00
Lonely zebra calf
“Has been alone for 3 hours”
H1-4, +- 8 kms south of Olifanfs river. Between Letaba and Satara
5/5
Tinged by Duppies
Kruger Sightings
Verified account @LatestKruger
15h15 hours ago
Update on the Lonely zebra foal seen yesterday.
It was still there today
H1-4, +- 8kms south of Olifants river
Tinged by Sarah
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596
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Peter Betts
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Re: Zebra
probably lion activity ..separated from mom ..needs milk and unless reunited he will be taken the next night especially in that area