Most zebras have dark skin beneath their fur but the stripes do not consist of white fur with gaps in between – they have both black and white fur.
All the fur grows from follicles that contain the pigment-generating melanocyte cells. It’s just that in the white fur, these melanocytes are deactivated. This implies that black is the default colour of the fur and that’s why most authorities and experts describe zebras as black with white stripes.
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