Science doesn't always take the straightest of lines to reach a conclusion. But then, the point is to get to the truth about a thing, and if that means an odd, meandering route, then so be it.
Which is perhaps how a bunch of biologists ended up in a pasture with buckets of livestock-grade paint.
We know that a tiger's stripes help it remain unseen while it hunts through jungles and tall grasses. But zebras don't do a ton of hunting, and jungles aren't really their scene.
I'm sure that in certain environments, zebras have a bit of an advantage, but as clever camouflage goes, nature has come up with much, much better than this.
The thought is that the stripes might confuse a bug's ability to judge where and how to land, preventing them from biting.
Bug bites are estimated to cost the U.S. cattle industry as much as $2.2 billion a year, as the animals graze less, sleep less, eat less, and get more stressed when they're harassed by flies.
Figuring out if zebra stripes do indeed prevent bites is easily a worthwhile study.
They then spent three days observing and getting images of the cows in their zebra disguises, noting any other fly-repelling things they might be doing like flicking their tails or twitching their skin.
Because who knows, the scent and fumes from paint could easily repel bugs. However, that was not the case.
Zebra-striping not only reduced the number of flies around the cows, but also reduced those fly-repelling behaviors by about 20%, too.
So the cows weren't bothered as much by the bugs they did attract.
Holstein cows are black and white, just like zebras, but they're not striped, so they'll still feel the effects of bugs.
It has to be much preferable to spraying chemicals around. However, the researchers cautioned that more work needs to be done, including looking at a larger sample size, different breeds of cows, and over longer periods of time, especially during peak season for biting insects.
Check out the full paper in PLoS ONE.
