Scientists claim to have come up with an explanation for why zebras have their characteristic black and white stripes
A study shows that the striped pattern made the animals much less attractive to some of their most irritating enemies - horse flies.
The scientists put sticky model horses - one white, one black and one zebra striped - into a fly-infested field, and collected the flies which had stuck to each of them.
They found that the model zebra attracted by far the fewest flies.
