The zebra's stripes confuse parasites. At a distance, the zebra's stripes made no difference, and the horse flies began circling the zebras and horses alike. However, when the horse flies got closer to the zebras, they failed to slow down, so couldn't land. Why zebras had to evolve anti-fly stripes is to avoid horse flies, which in Africa often carry dangerous diseases such as trypanosomiasis and African horse sickness. If zebra stripes are so good at getting rid of parasites, why not dress-up horses as zebras?

Source: Forbes February 21, 2019 08:00 UTC