Slovene-English Dual Text: Zakaj Imajo Zebre Proge?

By , 11 Mar 2019, 21:14 PM How to Slovenia
No flies on us No flies on us Wikimedia - Sajjad Fazel CC by 3.0

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Zakaj imajo zebre proge?

Why do zebras have stripes?

Written by Urša, translated by JL Flanner & G Translate

Zebre so konjem podobne prebivalke afriških savan.

Zebras are horse-like residents of the African savannah.

Krasi jih črno-bel kožuh. Vsaka zebra ima edinstven progasti vzorec, ki je njen prepoznavni znak, tako kot pri ljudeh prstni odtis.

They are covered in black and white fur. Each zebra has a unique striped pattern, which is its recognisable sign, just like a human fingerprint.

Znanstveniki so dolgo mislili, da je njihov kožuh bel in proge črne, a so kasneje ugotovili, da je ravno obratno.

For a long time scientists thought that their fur was white and the stripes were black, but later they found it was the opposite.

In zakaj so zebre progaste?

And why are zebras striped?

Da se lažje skrijejo? Da s progami med tekom zmedejo plenilce? Ali da se z njimi hladijo Za nobeno od hipotez niso imeli dovolj trdnih dokazov.

To make it easier to hide? So that the stripes confuse predators when they are running together? Or to cool them? None of these hypotheses has enough hard evidence.

Raziskovalci so nato leta 2014 postavili še eno hipotezo. Progasti vzorec bi lahko zebre varoval pred obadi. Svojo idejo so pred kratkim preverili in podkrepili s preprostim poskusom.

The researchers then put forward another hypothesis in 2014. A striped pattern could protect the zebras from horse flies. They recently checked and found support for their idea with a simple experiment.

Oblikovali so tri skupine živali. V prvi skupini so bile zebre, v drugi konji in v tretji konji, preoblečeni v zebre.

Three groups of animals were formed. In the first group, zebras, in another horse,s and in the third horses made to look like zebras.

Vse tri skupine so na terenu natančno opazovali in snemali. Šteli so, koliko obadov jih obletava in koliko jih na njih tudi pristane.

All three groups were closely watched and recorded in the field. They [the researchers] were counting how many flies were flying around [the animals], and how many landed on them.

Vse živali je obletavalo približno enako število obadov. Ti namreč svoj plen izberejo na podlagi vonja. A da lahko pristanejo, morajo žival tudi dobro videti.

All animals had about the same number of flies around them. They choose their prey on the basis of smell. But if they are to be able to land, then the animal must also look good.

Izkazalo se je, da so obadi manj uspešno pristajali na hrbtih zeber in konj, preoblečenih v zebre. Zebre so bile tudi bolj uspešne pri odganjanju obadov z repom in s trzanjem s kožo.

It turned out that the flies were less successful in landing on the backs of zebras and the horses made to look like zebras. The zebras were also more successful in repelling [flies] with their tails and with twitching their skin.

Rezultati torej nakazujejo, da proge zebram pomagajo, da se zaščitijo pred nadležnimi obadi. Zaščita pred letečimi krvosesi pa je v afriških savanah zelo pomembna, saj ti prenašajo številne nalezljive bolezni.

The results thus indicate that zebra stripes help to protect themselves against annoying horse flies. Protecting against flying bloodsuckers is very important in the African savannah, because they transmit a number of infectious diseases.

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