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Click here for a printable version of this page.
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This is Zeta.
She's a zebra, and a beautiful one at that!
The most stirking thing about her is the stripes - they really make her stand out.
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But did you know that those stripes can also help her to become invisible?
In the wild, zebras are a potential meal for loads of other animals, especially lions.
So to survive, zebras have to be able to blend in with their surroundings.
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We can demonstrate how thanks to the magic of television.
Here's Zeta on a natural background - the sort of colour you'd be likely to see on the African plains.
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If we add in some plants, you can see that the stripes match the spiky vegetation.
Now it's easy to see how the confusion sets in, because it's not easy to see where the grass stops and the stripes start!
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It's even more confusing for the lions, because they're partially colour blind!
That means that they see less than half the colours we do. What they actually see is something like this.
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Zeta's patterned coat also breaks up her outline, because the colours blend together. In fact the stripes hardly stand out at all.
And because zebras gather in big groups, Zeta wouldn't be the only target for a hungry lion, making the chances of her being eaten more remote.
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Add a heat haze to give this effect, where all the zebras appear to blend in together, and the scene looks like a big stripey blob.
So there you have it - stripes! The key to brilliant camouflage for a brilliant creature.
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