Natural Selection and the Zebra

A few days ago I was browsing the Internet and saw a photo of a zebra; an animal that is known to have emerged a long time ago from the same species as horses, but nevertheless they have their bodies covered in fur that repeatedly alternates between white and black, so I asked myself the following question:

¿What made some individuals of that animal species survive better by having striped fur??

Well, the answer is not at all simple or intuitive, since its main function is to avoid horsefly bites, a very common insect in Africa.

These small insects are capable of killing a horse in numerous cases, and they have a very curious characteristic, which is that, like some other insects, They are very attracted to polarized light, which is intensely reflected by the white horses.

Black horses do not reflect as much polarized light, so they are less affected, but the most curious thing of all is that Zebras, due to their fur, reflect this light very irregularly, and horseflies barely distinguish them. of other inert elements in the environment, since they detect animals because they are large masses of light reflected uniformly.

Besides, the fur of zebras too it is believed that it can confuse a bit to its largest predators, like lions, who do not distinguish colors. But you could almost say that this reason is secondary, since its very particular coat works much better to avoid horseflies than to avoid felines, precisely.