Mary Reid., Age 8, Of Fort Motte, S.C., for her question:

Is a zebra black with white stripes?

Some people claim that the zebra is a white animal with black stripes. In any case, when you see the pretty little pony in a zoo, it seems impossible to tell whether his outstanding coat is white with black stripes or black with white stripes. He seems to have an equal amount of black and white.

Actually, the zebra is neither black nor white. When you look closely at his velvety coat, you see that the dark stripes are brownish black and the light stripes are yellowish buff. You could never tell by looking at him whether his basic color is light or dark  but the scientists have been able to figure out the answer.

The home of the zebra is Africa where the vivid sunshine falls in deep shadows among the grasses, bushes and trees. There are several zebra cousins, and each wears his own type of striped coat. And each zebra cousin has the kind of coat most suited to his background. The scientists studied these different zebra stripes, and they also studied the stripes of a more ancient type of zebra.

A zebra's coat is outstanding in a drab zoo. But it blends into a landscape which is speckled with patches of bright sunshine and dark shadows. This is important, for the zebra shares his home with the lion, and the lion loves zebra meat. When the zebra's stripes blend in with his background, the lion cannot see him. After many generations, the only zebras left in a region are those that blend in with the scenery. The zebra of the brush land of Kenya has a finely striped coat which blends with the tall grasses. The zebra of south Africa has wider stripes to hide him among the bushes and shrubs. The zebra of the thick, shadowy forests has still wider stripes.

In bygone days, the quagga zebra lived in Africa and experts think that he was like the ancient ancestors of all the zebras. He was buff colored with just a few dark stripes on his head and neck. The striped zebras, we are told, most likely descended from ancestors that were buff colored. So zebras are light colored animals with dark stripes. The stripes appeared later to help them blend in with their backgrounds.

The zebra is a wild horse, and the horse family got its start in north america. In the dim past, there was a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia, and animals crossed back and forth between America and Asia. Same of the little wild horses got as far as Africa. They were the light colored ancestors of the zebras. Their children did not begin to wear their dark zebra stripes for many generations.