“I really hate when science books say that an animal evolved something for it’s benefit”
Of course the animal doesn’t plan the mutation. You are right. But, logically the mutations that are carried on either do nothing harmful or are beneficial to the animal and its descendents. Since things like the Zebra’s stripes are not found in the fossil record, we are reduced to DNA hints and rare skin or feather fossils which don’t give information about color (amber trapped insects do I think).
The article still doesn’t say if a Zebra is a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes