In the zebras’ case, until now it was quite rare for two zebras to mate who both have the recessive trait for abnormal stripes, so there weren’t a lot of zebras with this stripe pattern. White lions, which are extremely rare, get their colour due to a recessive gene, the chinchilla mutation, and have been extinct in the wild for more than 12 years. Researchers say that the abnormal stripes may be a recessive trait, and inbreeding is causing this trait to be more common.Ī recessive trait is one like blue eyes in humans that can be trumped by something called a dominant trait, like brown eyes. “ have these odd, mottled, weird looking stripes, a lot of black on their body, and their legs and face are almost all white with just the tiniest strips of black. She said there are other types of abnormal patterns that look even stranger. “The ones that we studied have spots on the saddle or kind of faded area on the saddle instead of stripes.” Larison says researchers suspect that these abnormal zebra patterns are a recessive trait. This zebra has unique spots in the middle of its body. How is that possible?Īccording to the new study, the total population of plains zebras has declined by about 25 per cent since 2002.īrenda Larison, an assistant adjunct professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that as the population has decreased, more and more zebras with abnormal patterns are popping up in some areas.
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