Questions, Answers, and More Questions

The zoo I work at now is a small one, one in which the animal keepers have to wear many hats.  Not only do they care for the critters, they also do maintenance, construction, landscaping, and security... oh, and we sweep the place out at night.  A major component of the job, one which would be outsourced to a separate department at a larger zoo, is education.  

I like talking to visitors, generally.  The part that stresses me about doing so is the questions - I always worry about not having answers.

Most of the time, I'm in the clear - the questions tend to be about the specific, individual animal ("How old is he?  What is his name?  What does he eat?") which I can generally answer (though the age one always trips me up... a lot of our two-year old animals stay two in my mind for years and years).  Some of the questions about animals as a species I can answer easily enough, too - "Where does it come from?", for instance.

There are some questions that are just hard to answer, though, either because there isn't a neat simple answer, or because we honestly don't know.  Consider one of the most common animal questions ever, one that zookeepers get asked constantly - Why do zebras have stripes?.

The answer?  We don't know for sure... but we have some ideas...

The original idea was that the stripes acted as a sort of camouflage.  I don't think many people bought this - part of the reason zebras are so beloved is that their stripes are so bold and beautiful that we can't help but notice them.  In Africa, I was able to notice zebras from a great distance, whereas I had to practically trip over antelope to find them.

A variation of the idea says that zebras have stripes to camouflage themselves... against other zebras.  If a herd of zebras starts to run, they just become a black-and-white blur, making it hard for a lion or hyena to pick out a single animal to attack.  Not sure I buy this either - would a herd of wildebeest (all the same color) be any harder to single an animal out of?

Another idea says that the stripes - alternating black to absorb heat and white to reflect it - serve in a temperature regulation role.

Like human fingerprints, no two zebra stripe patterns are the same.  This has led to the idea that the stripes help zebras recognize one another, especially for the young to focus on their mothers (black and white being the first colors that many animals can recognize).  Seems plausible...

The new theory being batted around is that the stripes serve as a some sort of op-art insect repellent, discouraging flies from bothering zebras.  A study done in 2012 seems to show flies being less inclined to land on vertically-striped surfaces.  Is this the answer?

Maybe.  Maybe it's part of the answer, and the real answer is a combination of several of the above factors.  Maybe it's something we haven't even thought of yet.

One of the earliest things I learned when talking to guests is that it's okay to admit that you don't have all the answers.  Sometimes, I have a hard enough time having all the questions.