We still don't know why zebras have stripes

[Still Waters]

Zebra stripes do not help regulate their body temperature. That's the conclusion reached by researchers in Hungary, trying to narrow down a longstanding mystery about the animals' amazing coats.

Zebras are magnificent animals, with the tall stature and long faces shared with their horse family (equid) cousins. Unlike equids, though, they're dazzlingly striped black and white.

It's a colouration that must have evolved for a reason, yet scientists have struggled to figure it out.

https://www.sciencealert.com/zebra-stripes-field-test-do-not-help-with-thermoregulation-body-temperature-cooling

[Piney]

Real threaded Mustangs in the American Southwest still have stripes on their legs as with their ancestors the Sorraia in Portugal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorraia

 

[MWoo7]

So it doesn't have anything to do with survival eh?!?!?  So its nothing correlative to the story of the coal dust and moths in that the white ones survived attacks and the black coloured ones were seen instantly by birds etc.?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution

Oh -- pepper moth, my mistake.

Could be body heat but then why are they not white in the hottest regions of this rock eh?!?!? Well I suppose it could be a happy medium of not being seen too well when there was a <snip> BOATLoads of grass everywhere and ALSO! body regulated heat aide::: https://www.livescience.com/49447-zebras-stripes-cooling.html

How about insects eh?!?!?https://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2012/02/zebra-stripes-keep-horse-flies-at-bay.html

Edited July 11, 2018 by MWoo7
oh can't stand edits that's someone else's job, plenty of edits too many to list! there you have it!

[+ouija ouija]

I understood the stripes are camouflage. That's been the general consensus for 60+ years!

[oldrover]

Maybe other zebras jyst find them alluring. Sexual selection? 

Also the quagga is sonething to consider in this.