![]() ![]() The stripes on the inanimate hide had a similar difference between black and white stripes, but the highest temperatures of the black stripes could get up to another 27 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the living animals’ coats. That disparity, say the Cobbs, is enough to produce small convection currents (or air eddies) above the zebras’ skins that help to keep the animals cool by speeding up the evaporation of sweat. Surprisingly, what they found was that the temperature of the black stripes and the white stripes differed greatly on the living animals and that the temperatures widened as the day heated up: the black stripes ended up being up to 27 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the white stripes. Researchers noticed that zebras graze out in the sun and the heat for far more hours than other animals living in the same area. They also took similar measurements of a zebra hide wrapped around clothes in the shape of a horse left in the sun on the ranch. They measured the temperatures of adjacent black and white stripes on various parts of the zebras every 15 minutes, as well as taking ambient air temperatures near the animals. But this made her wonder: if white stripes are cooler, why would zebras have the black ones at all? The coolness of zebra stripesīy December 2003, the Cobbs were again living in Africa and got a chance to test some of their ideas about the question on a couple of captive zebras living on private ranches in Kenya. Without looking, when Alison touched the different colored stripes on the girls’ backs, she could tell which ones were black and which were white just by how hot they were. ![]() She made them wear rugby shirts on which she had sewed black-and-white stripes and encouraged her “experimental animals” to crawl around on their hands and knees in the sun. The Cobbs then moved to England and without direct access to research animals, Alison enlisted the help of her three daughters, aged 8, 9 and 10. The Cobbs had spent many years living in sub-Saharan Africa and were always amazed by how much time zebras spent grazing in the blazing heat of the day-for far more hours than the antelopes living in the same area. Stephen Cobb, measured the temperature differences between the black stripes and the white stripes on two zebras living in their natural habitats in Kenya, Africa-something that hadn’t been tried before. In a study published on Jin the Journal of Natural History, the scientific publication of the British Natural History Museum, amateur naturalist and former biology technician Alison Cobb and her husband, zoologist Dr. As the world continues to warm, we might be able to learn a lot from them. We’re still learning about zebras and the reasons why they have their beautiful stripes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |