Why does the Zebra have its stripes

Now this is something that made me chuckle--yay for science! 

There really was such a study and you guys needed to know about it. 

Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack

And here is the study if you want to read it, complete with graphs and pictures:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0223447

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