Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Maybe to Help Keep Cool

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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(Inside Science) — A gangrene-inducing bite in Africa, 40 years of curiosity, and backyard experiments her daughters still complain about have all come together to tell Alison Cobb one thing: Stripes help zebras keep their cool. New research published this week in the Journal of Natural History shows stripes may create air flows that give zebras a kind of natural air conditioning system that helps them ward off the blazing sun.

“It’s about therm

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