Read the blog article written by a student about her project on zebras, and then answer the following questions. I've always wondered why zebras have stripes, so I decided to do a school project to find out. Before I started it, I knew that zebras are members of the horse family, which consists of seven different kinds of animals including horses and donkeys. And the three species of zebra, which live in Africa, are the only members of the horse family with stripes. Horses and zebras have many things in common, like diet and family living. However, zebras are naturally more aggressive, which means that humans tend to avoid them. And unlike horses, they bark to warn other family members of danger. I already knew these things, but my project was an opportunity to learn more. The first thing I discovered was that the striped pattern of each zebra is unique, which is amazing if you consider the number of zebras in the world. And they're actually born with brown and white stripes, not black and white, something I hadn't expected to learn. To understand more about the stripes, I decided to read about two scientific experiments. The first was in 2019, investigating why flies tend not to bite zebras. Zebra hair is short and thin, so in theory flies can easily bite their skin, but don't for some reason. Professor Caro from the University of California, USA, wanted to find out why. Although he had studied zebras extensively in Tanzania, he chose to study a group of zebras in the UK. You might think that he would prefer to study animals in their natural environment, but these zebras were part of a wildlife conservation programme and so were used to humans approaching them. Professor Caro filmed close-up images of how flies behaved around the zebras and whether they landed on the animals or flew past. He then dressed a group of domestic horses in striped jackets and observed the flies' behaviour in the same way, and then repeated this with plain-coloured horses without any jackets. The results were clear. All three groups - the zebras, the horses in striped jackets, and the plain horses with no jackets - experienced a similar number of flies around them. However, far fewer flies landed on the zebras and on the horses with striped jackets. Instead, the insects approaching these animals just bounced off, whereas the flies around the plain horses managed to land. This proved to Professor Caro that zebras' stripes prevent them from being bitten by flies. Some farmers paint stripes onto cows for the same reason - l've actually seen some in a field near my house. My dad told me that it allows them to feed without interruption. He also told me that painting the cows improves their welfare. I'm not sure how many farmers do this though! The second experiment I read about was carried out by a former biology technician called Alison Cobb. She'd worked in Africa for many years and had been fascinated by zebras ever since reading stories about African animals as a child. Cobb believed that the function of the stripes was to keep zebras cool. I'd heard this before, but some of her detailed findings, such as the way the black hairs move up and down in the heat, I found remarkable. In her experiment, Cobb measured the temperature of zebras' stripes every 15 minutes. She discovered that the black stripes get much hotter than the white ones - something that had never occurred to me before - and, astonishingly, zebras actually sweat through the ends of their hairs! After doing my project, I definitely know a lot more about zebras than I did before! $$\(1 \quad\)$$ How many types of zebra are there? 2 How is zebra behaviour different from horse behaviour? Give two details. . 3 Where did Professor Caro's experiment take place? 4 Why were the zebras in the wildlife conservation programme suitable for Professor Caro's study? 5 What happened when the flies in Professor Caro's study tried to land on the animals with stripes? 6 What are the benefits of protecting cows from being bitten by flies? Give two details. . 7 What first inspired Alison Cobb's interest in zebras?

Answer:

three / 3
Award 1 mark for each detail up to a maximum 2 marks:
1 more aggressive
2 bark (to warn other family members of danger)
UK do not allow any alternatives for UK, eg. GB, England
used to humans (approaching them) / humans can approach them
bounced (off) / bounced (back) / could not land
Award 1 mark for each detail up to a maximum 2 marks:
1 feed without interruption
2 improves welfare
stories about African animals / reading about African animals

Knowledge points:

Solution: