At Turpentine Creek, we know tigers well, appreciate their beautiful stripes, and understand why they have them. But there are many animals all across the animal kingdom with this distinct patterning, and we find that it benefits them for different reasons. So we’re going to go over some iconic striped animals, and why we think they might have those stripes.
Tigers
From what we understand, tiger stripes help break up their shape in their environment. Both tigers and their prey are red-green color blind, meaning both red and green look like the same color to them. Despite that orange standing out to us in the green foliage, in their natural environment, they are pretty much invisible!
Zebra
Despite what you may think, zebras and their stripes are a considerably debated topic, and we’re not even going to talk about if they’re white with black stripes or vice versa. Some people believe zebra stripes help break up their shape in their herds, making it more difficult for predators to hone in on one prey item. There’s also a belief that stripes help keep parasites away, and this can benefit animals like tigers as well. Either way, zebras are an iconic fixture on African savannas.
Ring-Tailed Lemurs
In a bit of a different realm, we see smaller animals like ring-tailed lemurs with striped parts of their bodies – tails in this case. Another debated topic, the striped tails could offer them a few perks. Camouflage is always the first guess, which is accurate, stripes break up shapes. Researchers have observed ring-tailed lemurs using their noticeable tails to communicate with other lemurs. Specifically, they hold their tails straight up to signal danger to the rest of the group!
Okapi
Unlike many of the other animals on this list, the reason for the okapi’s stripes is pretty well agreed upon. Like many forest dwelling antelopes, they use stripes as dispersion camouflage. Dispersion camouflage helps them blend in with the light breaking through the canopy above! Although they might seem noticeable to us, okapi remain incredibly elusive and are often called the ghosts of the forest. Cryptozoologists once studied them, and researchers captured the first photo of a baby okapi in the wild in 2018!
Striped Damselfish
Despite how their habitats differ from the other animals we’ve discussed, experts believe striped damselfish use their stripes for camouflage. Colorful reefs and schools of other fish can make a great background for an animal with a distorted exterior. There are many interesting colorations to see in the ocean that we don’t see on land, and there’s still so much to learn about the animals that live in that environment.
These are just some of the animals with stripes that exist across the world, and each of them benefits from this amazing pattern in their own way depending on their environment. One of the most interesting facts about every single animals’ pattern, striped, spotted, or in between, is that it is as unique as a human fingerprint. No two animals look the same, and that’s something truly amazing!
*Published by Laynie Rodzon on 2/1/2025*