In the living zebras, these air flows could help to cool the zebras in the hottest times of the day by speeding up the evaporation of sweat. The research couple believes that these differences in temperature are enough to cause small air eddies. (MORE: Parasitic wasps ambush spiders by playing the victim) The stripes on the inanimate hide had a similar difference between black and white stripes, but the highest temperatures of the black stripes were 15 degrees Celsius hotter than the peak black stripe temperatures of living zebras. They found the temperature of the black and white stripes differed greatly on the living animals, with greater differences at the hottest points of the day. “He still has a scar,” Alison Cobb said.īut their research proved enlightening. The research didn’t come without casualties - Stephen Cobb got bit by a territorial male stallion, and his wound later turned to gangrene. They also took similar measurements of a zebra hide wrapped around clothes in the shape of a horse left in the sun on the ranch. They measured the temperatures of adjacent black and white stripes on various parts of the zebras every 15 minutes throughout the day, as well as taking ambient air temperatures near the animals. She didn’t get the chance to get close to zebras again until her 70th birthday, when she and her husband traveled back to Africa to test her idea on a couple of captive zebras living on private ranches in Kenya in December 2003. (MORE: When penguins dive for food, other seabirds follow and get a treat) She had also witnessed zebras spending a great deal of time grazing in the hot midday sun - more than the antelopes which lived in the same area - and believed the stripes might be helping them deal with the heat. But camouflage seemed a poor explanation to Cobb in light of her own observations in Africa of lions prowling up and down herds of zebras deciding which one to eat. When she was four years old, Cobb, now 85, first wondered about zebra stripes after reading Rudyard Kipling’s story “How the Leopard Got His Spots.” A nature documentary she watched claimed zebra stripes were a type of camouflage. Other scientists argue the main reason for stripes is to deter biting insects. “It’s about thermoregulation to avoid the heat and cold,” said Cobb, a retired amateur naturalist, who conducted the research with her zoologist husband, Stephen Cobb. New research published today in the Journal of Natural History shows stripes may create air flows that give zebras a kind of natural air conditioning system that helps them ward off the blazing sun. (Inside Science) - A gangrene-inducing bite in Africa, 40 years of curiosity, and backyard experiments her daughters still complain about have all come together to tell Alison Cobb one thing: Stripes help zebras keep their cool.
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