Scientists once thought zebra stripes might help confuse predators, but when researchers dressed horses in zebra-striped coats, biting flies repeatedly failed to land — adding to evidence that the famous pattern evolved to thwart insects, not lions

Scientists once thought zebra stripes might help confuse predators, but when researchers dressed horses in zebra-striped coats, biting flies repeatedly failed to land — adding to evidence that the famous pattern evolved to thwart insects, not lions

The horses in a North Somerset paddock were dressed as zebras, and the horseflies could not cope. That was the point. Tim Caro, Martin How and colleagues studied tabanid horseflies at a livery yard in North Somerset, filming their attempts to land on captive plains zebras and ordinary domestic horses kept in the same enclosures. […]