A recent investigation carried out by a team of scientists from the University of California (USA) has determined that the stripes of many equidae, such as zebras, serve to avoid the bite of flies .
The function of this striped pattern that the zebras, African wild asses or Przewalkski's horse present, for example, was divided, for the experts, into five widely extended hypotheses : the first related the stripes to camouflage, the second to reduction from excessive heat; Another hypothesis supported the social function of stripes; the fourth, to interrupt the attack of the predators; and, the last one, to avoid the bite of the flies.
To confirm or refute these hypotheses, the researchers took measurements of the extent and intensity of the stripes on different body parts of seven species and twenty subspecies of equids . Then, they studied the geographic distribution of these species on an Old World map and contrasted all the values of the hypotheses simultaneously . The scientists found that the distribution of the striped equid species overlapped with the activity ranges of the flies and that the results of the other theories were not conclusive, reinforcing the veracity of the last of the conjectures.
The conclusions of this work have been published in the journal Nature Communications .
