Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Zebra has a characteristic in the form of contrasting, black and white striped hair. What is the scientific explanation behind the zebra’s black-and-white hair?
The African Wildlife Foundation reveals the stunning black-and-white coloration of the zebra’s haired turtle is in stark contrast to the grasslands in which it lives.
Zebras come from the predominant forests of dry, brown-green, treeless grass in East and southern Africa.
The stripes and motifs of each individual zebra are unique and different. There are three species of zebra alive today, the plains zebra (Equus quagga), the mountain zebra (E. zebra) and the Grevy’s zebra (E. grevyi) with each species also having a distinct stripe pattern.
Reported from Live Science, for some zebras, the darker part of their skin is black while for others it is brown. Some only have stripes on the body, but none on their legs.
The Quagga Project says an extinct subspecies of plains zebra called the quagga (E. quagga quagga) had minimal stripes on its head, mane and neck.
University of California behavioral and evolutionary ecologist and conservation biologist Tim Caro said that despite the different patterns and colours, all zebras actually have the same skin color.
However, the statement does not answer the question of whether their hair is black with white stripes or vice versa.
To find out, researchers had to look into zebra melanocytes, which produce the pigment for their hair.
According to Caro, although zebras have black skin, different developmental processes determine their hair color, just as light-skinned people can have dark hair.
In fact, zebras actually have more light colored hair than dark ones, for example their belly is usually light. That may be why zebras look white with black stripes.
According to a review in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology published in 2005, each strand of zebra hair, both light and dark, grows from a follicle filled with melanocyte cells.
These cells produce the pigment that determines the color of hair and skin.
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