Zebras, in graphic editing by Gert Hilbink

About "Zebras, in graphic editing"

by Gert Hilbink

About the artwork

A zebra is an equine (family: Equidae) native to central and southern Africa. The animals are best known for their black and white striped pattern. Overall, they are very social animals. Zebras live with several harems together in a larger herd. Man has never really succeeded in domesticating them, unlike horses and donkeys, their closest relatives. Their panic instinct in case of danger proved difficult to unlearn.The zebra is a herbivore. Each zebra has a unique pattern of stripes. There is also a strong difference of the appearance of the stripes in the different species. In the steppe zebra or the common zebra (Equus burchellii or Equus quagga) the stripes continue on the belly, in the other species the belly is white. There is debate as to why the stripe pattern exists. Some think that the stripes serve as camouflage. This belief meets with a lot of resistance, considering that the grasses on the savannah are neither white nor black. Others believe that the stripe pattern confuses the lion, the zebra's greatest enemy. Because the lion is color blind, the dancing stripes could confuse it. Other scientists see it as a defense mechanism against biting flies like the tsetse fly, or a mere social recognition symbol.
The stripes run vertically in all species except around the legs, where they run horizontally.
In the West, people initially thought that zebras were white animals with black stripes, since the animals had white bellies. People at the time were used to having the answer depend on their own skin color. Embryological research, however, showed the opposite: zebras are black animals with white stripes. The skin of a zebra is therefore black - even under the white stripes. Colored skin cells produce a pigment that colors the hair black; white stripes are areas where pigmentation is missing.
These photos were graphically processed on the computer to produce this result.