puddicat
Well-Known Member
Was discussing camoflage in the pub last week (what an exciting life I lead) so since zebras have suddenly become topical I think this has to be done
Thursday zebra trivia quiz
- Thread starter puddicat
- Start date
sunflower
Well-Known Member
I went for the third one based on something I saw about big cats on tv once.
puddicat
Well-Known Member
well... you're not wrong
JustKickOn
Well-Known Member
I said the third one.
puddicat
Well-Known Member
the answer is....... (believe it or not)
dozzie
Well-Known Member
I went for 4!
Go on! Tell us!!!!!!!!!!!
Go on! Tell us!!!!!!!!!!!
DollyPentreath
Well-Known Member
All of them!!
puddicat
Well-Known Member
The answer is that there is evidence of zebra striping having all of those effects but as far as I know it is not known which is most effective in practice at preventing predation.
I was talking to a bloke who is an expert in animal camouflage, it was fascinating. I suppose I'd always thought that to hide something you paint it the same colour as the background with the same pattern. Using this logic you wouldn't want to be black and white in open grassland against a blue sky so zebras shouldn't work. It turns out that there are more subtle ways of fooling the vision system so that a better way of thinking about it is not so much that you have to look like everything else in the environment but you have not to be recognisable as an object. This is where using black stripes to break up the outline of body shape comes in. It turns out it can be difficult to 'see' something even when it is different from the environment. Not only that, but even once you've been clocked as a zebra you can still fool the preditor's vision system by taking advantage of the same limitations of the vision system that make optical illusions work. A book on animal camouflage is on my summer reading list!
I was talking to a bloke who is an expert in animal camouflage, it was fascinating. I suppose I'd always thought that to hide something you paint it the same colour as the background with the same pattern. Using this logic you wouldn't want to be black and white in open grassland against a blue sky so zebras shouldn't work. It turns out that there are more subtle ways of fooling the vision system so that a better way of thinking about it is not so much that you have to look like everything else in the environment but you have not to be recognisable as an object. This is where using black stripes to break up the outline of body shape comes in. It turns out it can be difficult to 'see' something even when it is different from the environment. Not only that, but even once you've been clocked as a zebra you can still fool the preditor's vision system by taking advantage of the same limitations of the vision system that make optical illusions work. A book on animal camouflage is on my summer reading list!
IsabelleJ
Well-Known Member
That sounds really strange!
But interesting
Will have to have a trawl round to get some more reading on it.
Isabelle
But interesting
Isabelle
Bess
Well-Known Member
The zebra stripes also work as camoflage because of the shimmering heat you can get in Africa, it makes them blend really well into the general background when they are on the horizon.