When visiting the zoo, the most common animal is probably the zebra. Almost every zoo is available. They have different fur and are easy to identify. But what you may not know is that the black and white stripes on the zebra are the same as human fingerprints, and none of them are the same.
There are three existing zebras in the world, namely the plain zebra, mountain zebra and fine -grained zebra. Most of our common varieties are plain zebras, which are mainly distributed in eastern, central and southern Africa. The mountain zebras are in South Africa.
The difference between the three zebras is very small. At first glance, it is difficult to see the difference, but if you focus on their stomach and butt, you will find that the stripes of the plain zebra have been extended to the stomach, and the other two zebra are of the zebra. There are no stripes on the belly; the stripes on the buttocks of the fine lines are particularly fine, and the stripes on the buttocks of the mountain zebra are rude, with only a few very thick lines.
In addition to the difference between fur and horses, zebras are very similar in other aspects. Humans have domesticated horses around 5500 years ago and let the horses take things and ride for humans, but to this day, the zebra can only be domesticated (using leather whip to make them obedient) and cannot be domesticated.
So the question is, what is the use of stripes on the zebra? Why didn’t humans domesticate zebra? Let’s talk about the topic of zebra.
1. What is the use of stripes on the zebra?
Zebra is an animal under Macoma, which has evolved from about 4 million to 4.5 million years ago. It is a unique species in Africa. The three existing zebras have each 2 to 8 sub -Asia. kind.
All three zebras are typical group animals, and a group of zebras are usually composed of an adult male and multi -adult female. The dozens of heads we see in animal columns, even hundreds of zebra groups, are actually composed of different ethnic groups briefly gathered together when they are migrating or foraging.
All zebras have black and white stripes, which is very obvious to our human beings, and it is easy to be discovered. However, this special stripe is obviously effective in nature, otherwise it will have been eliminated by naturally selection. So what is the use of stripes on the zebra?
Role 1: Confuse natural enemies
Although the stripes of the zebra are obvious in our eyes, this is a protective color for the natural enemy of the zebra. Our human vision is colorful. This is because there are three cone cells: red, blue, and green in human eyes. These three colors are three primary colors. Mixing each other can produce a variety of colors, so the world in our eyes is color.
But animals usually have only 1 or 2 types of cone cells, and most of them are color blindness. For example, although the night vision of cats is very good, they can only distinguish gray, green and blue for colors, and the saturation of these colors in their eyes is also very low, so the world in their eyes see us. It’s completely different.
In our opinion, the stripes on our zebra are very conspicuous, but in the eyes of natural enemies such as lions and cheetahs, they are blurred. Not only that, the black and white stripes on the zebra also help to spread the outer contour, making it difficult for predators to lock the target.
When a large group of zebras gathered together, in the eyes of predators such as lions and crickets, it was like a large animal, and when the zebra group ran, it looked like a pile of moving garbled. Therefore, the stripes on the zebra can confuse natural enemies, which is a protective color.
Function 2: Mosquito anti -bite
On the African prairie, in addition to a lot of mammals, there are also many mosquitoes, especially to pick up flies and some blood -sucking insects. They are particularly fell in love with Marco animals. Zebra is one of the main goals of mosquito bites.
However, if these blood -sucking insects encounter black and white zebras and other solid animals at the same time, most of them will bite pure -colored animals, because mosquitoes such as flies, flies, mosquitoes and other mosquitoes are difficult to fall on the zebra. Will hit the body directly and be bounced.
Scientists also did a special experiment on this, which put the same cloth as the zebra stripes on the home horse, and found that they were bitten by mosquito bites, especially in the position of “zebra skin”. Mosquito could hardly fall into the mosquito. To the top without putting on the “zebra peel” head, it was still bitten by normal biting.
Therefore, the stripes on the zebra have the effect of preventing mosquito bites. In conjunction with the tail that specializes in driving mosquitoes, the zebra is bit less than other animals.
Role three: regulate body temperature
Africa is located in tropical, and it is shining almost all year round. Therefore, it is particularly important to cool yourself. According to the research of scientists, the stripes on the zebra have the effect of regulating body temperature.
The zebra white stripes can reflect the sun and allow them to receive less heat, while the black stripes have better heat -absorbing effects. Black and white stripes can make local temperature differences and convection, which makes the zebrak lower than the surface temperature of the same size.
In general, the stripes on the zebra are conducive to their survival. It is evolved to adapt to the habitual habitat environment of the African prairie. It can not only confuse natural enemies, prevent mosquitoes, but also regulate body temperature.
2. Why does humans not domesticate zebras?
In fact, compared with the horses, zebras have many advantages, such as more rough feed, stronger disease resistance, and faster than Jiama, stronger endurance, and strong strength than domestic horses.
It can be said that the zebra that lives in the wild all year round is better than horses in all aspects. So why do humans not domesticate zebras? The reason is simple: zebras do not meet the conditions of domestication.
American biologist Jarad Dimmond specifically studied the conditions of wildlife being domesticated and found that wild animals must have low feed costs, fast growth speed, breeding under the condition of looping The six core elements can be domesticated by humans.
So does zebra meet these six conditions? Let’s take a look at:
In terms of breeding costs: Zebra is a herbivore, and it is resistant to coarse feed. It not only eats grass, but also eats branches and bark. Therefore, the cost of breeding zebrafeds will not be too high, which meets the conditions of domestication.
In fact, whether a species can be domesticated involves a concept of conversion efficiency. It is impossible for any kind of food to be eaten by any kind of animals to be transformed into energy 100%. The conversion rate of animals is usually about 10%, which means that herbivores can eat ten pounds of grass, and they can eat ten pounds of meat. Only meat can increase its weight by one pound.
This is why most of the animal domesticated animals are herbivorous animals or omnivorous animals. It can be said that no kind of carnivorous animals are domesticated and breeding as the source of meat products.
In terms of growth speed: As a raised animal, of course, the faster the breeding and the stronger the breeding ability, the more they are loved by the farmers. If you observe it carefully, you will find that the breeding speed of animals living around us is very fast. For example, the hens will get eggs every day, and a pig can have a dozen pigs in one child.
Some netizens have asked such questions: an elephant can provide 10 tons of meat. Why no one raises elephants to eat meat? One of the reasons is that the elephant is more than a teenager, and it takes 18 to 22 months during pregnancy. It takes more than ten years when it is born, which one will raise them to get meat?
Let’s take a look at the situation of the zebra: the zebra is 4 years old, with a pregnancy period of 11 to 13 months. The key is that they can only be produced every 3 years. Each delivery is usually only 1 child. Can’t compare at all. Therefore, in terms of growth rate, zebras are not in line with domestication requirements.
In terms of circles and reproduction: Zebra in the wild is a group animal, and a group is usually composed of an adult male and several adult females. Fighting, only the winner has the right to mating. We can meet the needs of the zebra, such as a group with only one male, or only let one female and one male live together.
However, the zebra breeding offspring pays attention to the sense of ritual. The male and female zebra must live together for a while. After deepening the relationship through intimacy, playing, the two will reproduce the offspring. The situation that can be matched is completely different. Therefore, zebra is more troublesome to reproduce offspring under the condition of circle, and does not meet the requirements of domestication.
In terms of temperament: Most of the animals around us are more docile, but the zebra’s temper is very irritable and looks harmless, but if we are angry, they will bite people, and they will not be loose. Data show that how long is the breeder bitten by zebra every year than being bitten by a lion. So in terms of temperament, zebras are not suitable for domestication.
In terms of guts: the domesticated animals will inevitably live with humans. If the courage is too small, it is likely to be scared by some human behavior. For example, when an antelope is scared, it will run and run, which is obviously not suitable for circle, and the scary of goats and sheep will not have much reaction.
Judging from the actual situation of zebra in most zoo, the zebra’s courage is not small, at least it will accept human feeding and tourists’ onlookers. Therefore, the zebra courage meets the domestication requirements.
In terms of group dwelling: When humans have domesticated home and horses, there is actually a very clever way to give priority to the leader of the horse group. The horse is a group of animals, and other members of the group usually explain to the leaders. Human beings only need to control the leaders of the horse to control the entire horse group.
Although Zebra is also a group, the group members are not subjected to an alienity. They will resist foreign enemies together, but if the leader is captured by humans and other members of the zebra group will not follow their heads, then humans want to domesticate zebra Capture from the wild, this difficulty can be imagined.
Therefore, from the six core elements of wild animals that can be domesticated, zebra only conforms to two of them. Although their breeding costs are relatively low, zebra has irritability, slow growth, complex reproduction, and not good. Control, so zebra is difficult to domesticate.
3. End language
The stripes on the zebra are not conducive to hiding in humans, but in the eyes of “color blindness” predators, this black and white stripes make them confuse and even see it clearly. The stripes on the zebra are a protective color that not only confuses natural enemies, but also reduce mosquito bites, and even have the effect of regulating body temperature.
At least 150 kinds of grassy animals that have reached a certain level of weight and live on land, at least 150. However, in the past thousands of years, there are only 14 kinds of large herbivores that have been domesticated by humans, as well as plants that are mainly plants.