Animals with stripes include animals like hyenas, tigers, and zebras. Animals have lines for several reasons. These include:
- Hiding from predators
- Hiding from prey
- Warning other animals
- Looking like other animals that might be dangerous
Most animals have stripes to either hide from predators or to hide from prey. When this is the case, the stripes are known as camouflage stripes. Camouflage is any pattern that helps an animal hide. These patterns also include spots and splodges. They help animals to hide by breaking-up their shape or appearance when plants surround them. This makes them a lot harder to spot.
Other animals with stripes have them to act as a warning sign. For example, it’s thought that wasps have bright yellow and black lines to warn predators they have a nasty sting. By sending out a warning sign, these animals could avoid having to defend themselves. Some insects, like the hoverfly, have evolved to look like wasps, so predators don’t bother them.
Ten Animals With Stripes
There are loads of different animals with stripes. To help you learn more about them, here’s a list of nine other animals with bars:
- Tiger
The tiger is one of the most recognizable animals with stripes. They’re found in a few places throughout Asia, from Southern India to parts of China. The Siberian tiger, which lives in Eastern Russia, is the largest cat species on the planet. Sadly, tigers are endangered across their range. This is because of hunting by humans. Habitat loss from deforestation has also decreased the number of places for tigers to live.
- Zebra
Zebras are probably the next most well-known animal with stripes. Scientists have long thought that zebras might have lines to confuse predators. These days, many scientists believe zebra stripes are to keep flies away, which can carry harmful diseases. Unlike many animals on this list, zebras aren’t considered endangered, although they’ve lost much of their former habitat to humans.
- Bumblebee
The bumblebee isn’t just one insect but a family of over 250 species. As with wasps, the bright black and yellow stripes of bumblebees warn predators that they can give a nasty sting. However, unlike wasps, bumblebees have a barbed stinger, which means they can only sting once.
- Wasp
Wasps are another insect that has stripes to warn predators. Like bees, wasps live in a colony known as a ‘nest.’ There’s one female, the queen, that lays all the eggs. She’s tended to by a few males known as drones. Unlike bees, wasps can sting multiple times, but they don’t usually sting people unless they feel threatened.
- Okapi
Though it looks like a zebra, the okapi is more closely related to giraffes. They’re sometimes called the ‘forest giraffe.’ They live in the vast Congo Rainforest, which means they’re very hard to spot in the wild. Their stripes help them to hide from predators among the thick vegetation.
- Chipmunk
These lovable creatures are relatives of the squirrel. The chipmunk is about half the size of a squirrel and lives in caves underneath the ground. Because they don’t have any other defenses against predators, it’s thought that the chipmunk’s stripes are to help it blend in with the forest floor. This is to make it harder to spot.
- Skunk
The skunk is another animal that has stripes to warn predators. Unlike bees or wasps, skunks prefer to stink at potential predators when they feel threatened. They do this by spraying a foul-smelling liquid towards the eyes or face of another animal. The smell of this liquid is so strong that it can ward off animals as big as bears.
- Coral Snake
Coral Snakes are a family of venomous snakes with bright red, yellow, and black stripes to ward off predators. They’re found in Asia, as well as the Americas. Other snakes, like the non-venomous (at least, not to humans) milk snake, have evolved to mimic the coral snake’s distinctive pattern.
- Scottish Wildcat
The last animal with stripes on this list, the Scottish wildcat, is Britain’s only wild cat species. However, it looks like a domesticated tabby cat; the wildcat is absurd. They also have a slightly bigger jaw, different facial markings, and thicker fur. Unfortunately, the Scottish wildcat is on the verge of extinction, with only 400 individuals remaining in the wild.
