Why do zebras have stripes? There are several versions: for cooling, for protecting predators and vampires.
Only the latest version has been confirmed experimentally. It turns out that if you draw cows as stripes, the frequency with which insects sit on them doubles. These bands confuse blood-sucking parasites, which are unable to properly target cows.
Another study showed that white stripes not only protect cows, but also humans from insects. Most indigenous communities that paint their bodies live in areas where vampire horseflies, mosquitoes, or mosquito flies are prevalent. Bites carry the risk of carrying bacteria and parasites. Body art in these areas was already popular long before people started wearing clothes.
Experiments have shown that the brown plastic model attracts ten times more horseflies than the brown striped model. Plastic beige dolls are attacked less often than brown dolls, but twice as often than striped dolls.
