EVOLUTION AND ZEBRA STRIPES.

EVOLUTION AND ZEBRA STRIPES. The puzzle of how the stripes on zebras gave an evolutionary advantage has been around since Darwin’s time. This Guardian article by James Randerson from 2009 tells how Alfred Wallace, who discovered natural selection at roughly the same time as Darwin, suggested that the stripes helped zebras blend into the background at dusk. Darwin objected to Wallace’s suggestion because “stripes on the open plains of South Africa cannot afford any protection.” This article in the New Scientist by Wendy Zukerman about the research on horseflies includes Darwin’s suggestion that the stripes were important in zebra courtship. Zukerman’s article concludes with a quote from an evolutionary biologist that, having been bitten painfully many times by horseflies, he thinks: “This new explanation makes a great deal of sense to me.”