{"id":811,"date":"2014-04-01T15:01:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T20:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=811"},"modified":"2014-04-21T16:26:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T21:26:10","slug":"zebra-stripes-may-deter-biting-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/zebra-stripes-may-deter-biting-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Zebra stripes may deter biting flies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_812\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/zebra_grazing.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-812\" class=\"size-full wp-image-812\" alt=\"The functional significance of zebra stripes has generated much interest and many hypotheses yet few have been tested. Comparative data from equids shows that striping is found in areas of particularly high biting fly annoyance, whereas other hypotheses cannot account for zebras' infamous coloration. (Credit: Caro et al.)\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/zebra_grazing.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The functional significance of zebra stripes has generated much interest and many hypotheses yet few have been tested. Comparative data from equids shows that striping is found in areas of particularly high biting fly annoyance, whereas other hypotheses cannot account for zebras&#8217; infamous coloration. (Credit:<a href=\"http:\/\/press.nature.com\/pdf\/press_files\/ncomms\/01-04-2014\/photograph_zebra_grazing.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"> Caro et al.<\/a>, )<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Why do zebras have stripes? A new study suggests that rather than serving as camouflage, they may have evolved as a way to avoid fly bites.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers found that among equids (horse-like animals), striped species such as zebras overlapped the range of flies known to avoid black and white surfaces. Moreover, they didn\u2019t find any evidence that their stripes could have been used for camouflage, heat management or social interactions.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/ncomms\/2014\/140401\/ncomms4535\/full\/ncomms4535.html\" target=\"_blank\">Original research paper<\/a><\/span>\u00a0published in the\u00a0journal\u00a0<em>Nature Communications<\/em>\u00a0on\u00a0<strong>April 1, 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Names and affiliations of selected<\/strong><strong>\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/wfcb.ucdavis.edu\/people\/faculty\/caro.php\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Caro<\/a>, University of California at Davis<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do zebras have stripes? A new study suggests that rather than serving as camouflage, they may have evolved as a way to avoid fly bites. Researchers found that among equids (horse-like animals), striped species such as zebras overlapped the range of flies known to avoid black and white surfaces. Moreover, they didn\u2019t find any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[174,215,917],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-tip","tag-animals","tag-environment","tag-evolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/zebra_grazing.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-d5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/1121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}