The striped zebra can be a bold example of how coloring helps an animal survive. It confuses not only predators, but also dangerous insects. By stripes, the zebras themselves distinguish each other, so the pattern of the animal's skin is unique.
Coloring in animals, and especially insects, often serves as an adaptation to the environment. For example, the white inhabitants of the Arctic are the color of the snow. It is not easy to spot both a large polar bear and a small ermine against such a background. Zebra is no exception to this list; desert animals are often brown and variegated to match the color of the sand. The flounder changes color depending on the color of the bottom of the reservoir, a chameleon behaves in a similar way. It is very difficult to distinguish a leaf insect from a leaf, a stick insect from a small twig. But some living creatures, on the contrary, are painted very brightly, as if warning about their poisonous nature. And completely harmless representatives of nature, imitating such a color, retained their appearance. An example is the milk snake, which is very similar to the venomous coral snake, but what about the zebra? It seems that its color is so bright that there can be no question of any disguise. But this is not the case. The alternation of light and dark stripes on the body of a zebra creates an impression of fragmentation. The animal is, as it were, divided into many parts. It may not be so noticeable when a zebra is standing alone, but if a whole flock is running, then it is quite difficult for a predator to distinguish its chosen prey among the zebras. All the same stripes help individuals to distinguish each other. Scientists have proven that each zebra has a unique stripe pattern. Zebra cubs recognize the mother from the whole flock precisely by the set of stripes. By the way, the zebra turned out to be black with white stripes, since the area of the black stripes is larger. There is another reason for this color of the zebra. The alternation of bright stripes confuses another small but dangerous enemy of the animals of the southern countries: the tsetse fly. The bite of this insect often leads to the death of the animal. Namely, the fly rarely touches the zebra. This is how the zebra adapted to life in the difficult conditions of the African savannah.
