Why do #zebras have stripes? Over the years, PLOS ONE has published a body of research that shines a light on this fascinating question (1/5) 
Tim Caro's team at @WFCB_UCDavis tested the hypothesis that stripes make zebras cryptic to predators, but concluded that lions & hyenas might not be able to distinguish stripes at distance, making it unlikely that stripes are anti-predator camouflage (2/5) journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
Caro and colleagues then investigated whether stripes might provide protection against biting insects, and showed that stripes defeat visually-guided orienting behaviour in flies (3/5) journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
Next, they recorded horsefly behaviour when attacking zebras, horses dressed in zebra costumes, and naked horses. Striped surfaces prevented flies from making a controlled landing, so dressed horses were as protected like naturally striped zebras (4/5) journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
Building on this previous work, Kojima and colleagues showed how painting zebra stripes effectively protected cows from insect bites. Their research suggests an alternative for defending livestock against biting flies in tropical countries (5/5) journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
