Do you still remember Marty，the zebra in Madagascar？He wonders all the time：Is he black with white，or white with black？About his stripes there is more beyond the question that black is the main color or the white one.

Why do zebras have stripes?Or why are the strips important to zebras?

The newly experiments made by researchers suggest that strips make it hard for horse flies or other insects to land on the zebra.

One experiment goes like this:The researchers put blankets with stripes on horses and saw that fewer flies landed on them.

The researchers also recorded videos of horse flies as they tried to bite zebras and horses at a farm in North Somerset，England.Stripes did not stop flies from a distance，as they circled horses and zebras at similar rates.But the flies were 25 percent less likely to land on zebras.

There are mainly four theories about why zebras developed stripes.The first theory is to avoid attack by meat-eating animals.Another is that these strips can help zebras recognize each other.A third idea is with the help of the stripes zebras can control their body temperature.The fourth theory is to prevent attacks by biting flies.

Now the experiments show that the last theory stands up.

你還記得《馬達(dá)加斯加》中的斑馬馬蒂嗎？有一個(gè)問題一直困擾著它：它到底是黑白相間，還是白黑相間？除了“黑色是主色，還是白色是主色”的問題，有關(guān)它身上的條紋，馬蒂需要關(guān)心的還有很多。

為什么斑馬有條紋？或者說這些條紋有什么用？

最新的實(shí)驗(yàn)表明，斑馬身上的條紋增加了馬蠅或其他昆蟲著陸斑馬身體的難度。

其中一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)是這樣的：研究人員把帶有條紋的毯子披在馬背上，發(fā)現(xiàn)落在馬身上的馬蠅變少了。

研究人員還在英格蘭的北薩默塞特的一個(gè)農(nóng)場里，拍攝了馬蠅叮咬斑馬和馬的視頻。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)斑馬身上的條紋并不能阻止馬蠅的靠近，因?yàn)閲隈R和斑馬身邊的馬蠅數(shù)量差不多。但是落在斑馬身上的馬蠅數(shù)量比馬身上的要少25%。

斑馬身上條紋的用途，主要有四個(gè)：一是可以避免肉食動(dòng)物的進(jìn)攻；二是有助于斑馬識別同伴；三是可以調(diào)節(jié)斑馬體溫；四是防止蚊蟲叮咬。

最近的實(shí)驗(yàn)表明最后一條更成立。