zebra questions

lately I’ve been thinking a lot about zebras. one of the things I’ve been wondering is why they are striped. when it comes to evolution, I believe that animals (and humans) evolve slightly over time, but I affirm that they were all created by a creative designer.

 

 

evolution tells us that animals evolve and take on traits to help them survive in their environments- so why are zebras striped? why is any animal black and white for that matter? are there any black and white environments that they can blend into? is it because their predators are color blind? you would think that if zebras wanted to have an evolutionary advantage, that they would be tan or green to hide in their environment- or become faster than lions- or bigger than lions, but for some odd reason, their DNA made them black and white striped.

Wikipedia says that no one really knows why zebras are striped, but most think it has something to do with camouflage. this is what the article says about the evolutionary advantage of stripes:

“A wide variety of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the evolution of the striking stripes of zebras. The more traditional of these (1 & 2, below) relate to camouflage.

1. The vertical striping may help the zebra hide in grass by disrupting its outline. In addition, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to an apparent grey.

2. The stripes may help to confuse predators by motion dazzle—a group of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large mass of flickering stripes, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out a target.

3. The stripes may serve as visual cues and identification. Although the striping pattern is unique to each individual, it is not known whether zebras can recognize one another by their stripes.

4. Experiments by different researchers indicate that the stripes are effective in attracting fewer flies, including blood-sucking tsetse flies and tabanid horseflies. A 2012 experiment in Hungary showed that zebra-striped models were nearly minimally attractive to tabanid horseflies. These flies are attracted to linearly polarized light, and the study showed that black and white stripes disrupt the attractive pattern. Further, attractiveness increases with stripe width, so the relatively narrow stripes of the three living species of zebras should be unattractive to horseflies.”

evolution tells us that an animal’s dna will change to help it survive- well, how does a zebra’s DNA know what it looks like from the outside? how does it know what it looks like from far away? how does it know what it looks like from above? how does it know what its environment looks like so that it can blend in with it? how can it adapt to make its skin and fur into an optical illusion, if their DNA doesn’t have eyes? is it all just trial and error?
come on.

I wonder this about all black and white animals- like pandas- why are they black and white? why aren’t they green? and why would penguins be black at all? wouldn’t it make more sense just to be all white?

again, I think these animals look the way they do because they were created by a Creator, and He thought they look cool. and they do.

there is this passage in the book of job where God goes off on how cool some of His animals are. He talks about wild oxes, horses, ostriches and hawks. its like He is impressed with Himself at how creative He is and how amazing these creatures turned out. he says this about wild horses in Job 39:

““Do you give the horse its strength
    or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
²⁰ Do you make it leap like a locust,
    striking terror with its proud snorting?
²¹ It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
    and charges into the fray.
²² It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
    it does not shy away from the sword.
²³ The quiver rattles against its side,
    along with the flashing spear and lance.
²⁴ In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
    it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
²⁵ At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’
    It catches the scent of battle from afar,
    the shout of commanders and the battle cry.”

He asks the question- “did you make horses awesome?” and the unstated answer is,
“no. you didn't. but I did.”

 

 

He made horses awesome.
and zebras awesome.
and you awesome.
so be awesome today.

God is love.

-rev-rob