Years ago I was told that the black hairs on a zebra heat up while the white hairs stay cooler. This sets up a temperature difference between the stripes, which creates an airflow by convection and helps to keep the zebra cool. Does anyone out there know any more?
• The stripes probably serve more than one function, and according to the front-running hypothesis, they serve mainly to repel insects.
Susanne Ã…kesson and her colleagues at Lund University in Sweden suggest that horseflies are attracted to linearly polarised light. Uniformly coloured animals reflect linearly polarised light, so that makes them a…
