How did zebras get their stripes?

Some European scientists have presented a mundane explanation, saying that zebras’ stripes exist to stave off blood-sucking horseflies. This explanation, as it turns out, is one of many possibilities.

By the way, scientists used to think that zebras were white animals with black stripes, because the underbellies of some zebras are white. But it turns out that zebra embryos start out with a dark skin, and go on to develop white stripes before birth. So they are, essentially, dark creatures.