Pedantic warning: it’s not a conventional function, cuz it’d be multivalued for any given input no matter where you put the axes lol

How do they know the paint didn't do it?

There were 3 groups of black cows: an unpainted control group, a black stripe group painted with black stripes (not very visible because the cows were already black), and a black and white painted group. The control group had similar results to the black stripe group, which suggests that the black paint alone didn't do anything.

So further research could be to compare to an all black painted group and an all white painted group, with no unpainted fur, as well. If it's the pattern, then one would expect the totally painted cattle of either paint color would see similar results as unpainted.

This is why we need the paper linked with the meme. It seems obvious that a fly would prefer skin to paint.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223447

What is the burger tie for? To repel hippies?

now that the song is playing forcefully in my brain i'm going to make you suffer with me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA

Yes. They had a control group with only black stripes along with an unpainted group. I would have to assume they also checked the paints for potential repellents, but I only skimmed the article.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6776349/

What if it's just the white stripes (not the band)? Do white cows have the same number of flies? What if you paint them with black stripes?

Maybe those are answered in the article, but I'll never read it.

I haven’t read the study, but most of these would need a placebo group, so divide the herd into thirds, one with no paint, one with stripes, and one fully painted white to get a baseline for each group. Also would be good to randomize which group each cow goes in each day so to rule out one cow who is especially tasty to flies.

What if you actually read the study before asking questions 😅😜🤔

You're a hero.

FYI if this sort of study is your thing, Temple Grandin published her studies as a volume and they're quite good reading. More of them delve into human psychology than you'd think for someone who's famous for working with animals. Source: I paged through it while waiting in a book store

I mean, we kind of hijacked evolution in favor of hypergrowth and ludicrous gazongas a long time ago.

Sure, but there's also the secondary market of people who think it's hilarious to get a photo with a donkey painted like a zebra to trick tourists. Lean into it a bit, like wrestling, it could be fun.

This is no donkey painted like a zebra, it's a majestic hybrid zonkey. Just 5 dollars to take a photo, or 3 for $10.