Zebra stripes defend against blood-sucking insects like t... | funfact.wiki | funfact.wiki
Zebra stripes defend against blood-sucking insects like tsetse flies. In experiments, flies couldn't land on striped surfaces — they crashed or flew past without slowing down. Even regular horses wearing striped coats repelled flies.
Newborn horses don't have hard hooves. A jelly-like covering called "foal slippers" wraps around their hooves, protecting the mother during pregnancy and birth. These coverings naturally fall off once the foal begins to stand and walk.
Walking with same-side arm and leg moving together (lateral walk) is actually the most common gait among mammals — dogs, cats, elephants, and deer all walk this way. In Edo-period Japan, people also walked this way, using a style called "nanba."
Sloths risk their lives weekly climbing down to poop — because of moths. Moths lay eggs in sloth dung, then return to live in sloth fur. Their activity grows green algae on the fur, which sloths eat. Their own body becomes a snack farm.