The Science of Why, Volume 4 by Jay Ingram

Author:Jay Ingram
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

To see if this difference had something to do with a zebra’s stripes, the team clothed horses in striped coats. These horses received many fewer bites on their bodies but the same number on their uncovered heads. So it wasn’t the whole animal the flies were rejecting, just the striped part.

One suggestion is that stripes, because they’re unusual in the fly’s environment, might disrupt the way the fly’s eyes and brain work together. Stripes might make the fly see movement where there isn’t any, or vice versa, causing the fly to abort its landing—or just smash into the zebra, as they seemed to do. The closest human example is likely the rotating barber pole, which gives you the feeling that the pole itself is moving up or down, depending on which way it’s turning.

And don’t forget that a zebra’s stripes are different widths and contrasts, in some places horizontal on the body, in others places vertical. All that inconsistency might worsen the situation for the fly.

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