The production of melanin from melanocytes is "prevented during the development of a white hair, but not of a black hair," Caro told Live Science in an email. Zebras' black fur is chock-full of melanin, but melanin is absent from white fur, in essence, because the follicles that make up the stripes of white hair have "turned off" melanocytes, meaning they don't churn out pigment. This pigment is known as melanin a lot of melanin leads to darker colors, like dark brown or black, while less melanin leads to lighter colors, such as hazel or blond, Live Science previously reported. These cells produce a pigment that determines the color of hair and skin. Here's why: Every piece of hair - both light and dark - grows from a follicle filled with melanocyte cells, according to a 2005 review in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. In fact, zebras actually have more light-colored hair than dark - their bellies are usually light - so it may seem that zebras are white with black stripes.īut that's not the case. Although zebras have black skin, different developmental processes determine their fur color, just like a light-skinned person can have dark hair, Caro said. And even if you look at the three different zebra species, their skin is always the same color: black (according to Tim Caro, a behavioral and evolutionary ecologist and conservation biologist at the University of California, Davis).īut this still doesn't answer the question of whether their fur is black with white stripes or white with black stripes.įor that, we have to look to the zebra's melanocytes, or the cells that produce pigment for their fur. ![]() Zebra stripes are unique to each individual zebra, reports LiveScience, in an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot.
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