Why do zebras have stripes?

What BBN said about it

1. GV

   Greta VollmerZebra stripes are a landing guide for geese, and that is settled science, because I have seen the geese land.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA viewer asks why zebras have stripes.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOur expert is Greta Vollmer, Head of Nature, Unofficially, at a greenhouse and bait shop, and she talks to plants, and says they listen.

4. GV

   Greta VollmerStripes are a runway. Black, white, black, white, like the lights at an airport.

5. GV

   Greta VollmerGeese fly in at forty miles an hour and the zebra holds perfectly still. Ask yourself why a zebra would hold still for a goose.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat is wrong, and I say it with respect.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPer Wikipedia, several theories exist, but most evidence supports the stripes keeping biting flies away. Flies, not geese.

8. GV

   Greta VollmerOh, the flies. Who do you think hires the flies? The geese pay them in pond water.

9. GV

   Greta VollmerThe stripes only confuse the flies because the geese want the zebra for themselves.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNo one is paying the flies in pond water. The flies just land less on stripes, and that is the whole story.

11. GV

    Greta VollmerI was bitten by a goose, twice, by the same goose. The stripes did not save me.

12. GV

    Greta VollmerTherefore the geese know. I have just realized I am wearing a striped scarf.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA scarf is not evidence.

14. GV

    Greta VollmerFine. Maybe it is flies. But I keep forty-one buckets of live worms in this greenhouse, and not one fly has ever bothered me.

15. GV

    Greta VollmerPlease tell me that proves something.

16. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt proves you run a bait shop. Thank you, Greta. Please check behind you for the goose.