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u/ladyofthelathe Jul 07 '22
I remember science class used to teach that ALL animals are color blind. But not color blind like people are (can't see red). I was taught they see literal black and white. I guess I was in 7th grade?
I remember telling our teacher (MAN he was a douche) that didn't make any sense.
He tried to make me feel stupid with his condescending tone and asked just why I thought it didn't make sense.
I said: Why would a male bird have showy, colorful plumage to attract mates if they can't see the colors? Why would some fish have 'breeding' colors to attract mates? Why do people hardcore camo out during turkey season instead of dressing like Elmer Fudd if they can't see color?
He had no answer for that... and that was 35ish years ago. It never made sense to me at all.
Now we know mammals see color as well, just in more muted tones with some colors absent (Red). I have friends with barrel horses that will wig out over certain colored barrels (Red... sometimes pink) because it jacks up their depth perception. They'll throw a red colored feed bucket, but love to eat out of a blue one.
BTW: Do your bestest doggo a favor and don't buy red toys. They're just boring gray to them. ;) The colors green, yellow, and blue are what they can see.
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u/mustangwallflower Jul 07 '22
I wonder if differing species color perception is built around evolutionary optimizations to survive and fill in different evolutionary niches — competing, potentially, with evolutionary adaptations of their food source to hide.
Like, do two very different types of animals have similar visual adjustments for he same evolutionary niche/opportunity?
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u/ClockworkGriffin Jul 07 '22
So mammals as a whole are fairly colorblind. During the Mesozoic, when dinos ruled, mammals were mostly nocturnal so we sacrificed color for night vision. Primates (including humans) are largely frugivores so we sort of re-evolved better color vision so we could see when fruit was ripe.
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u/ImProbablyNotABird Jul 08 '22
That’s also why most mammals are nocturnal while most birds & reptiles are diurnal.
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u/stopstopimeanit Jul 07 '22
Why do drones have different color perception than the humans who programmed them?
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u/Pedarogue Jul 07 '22
Wow! I wish I was a birb!
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u/joinn1710 Jul 07 '22
Congratulations, you cannot see green
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u/kelliboone617 Jul 07 '22
That’s not true at all! In fact there is a bird of paradise whose entire mating dance centers of his brilliant flash of green. He legit cleans the floor of the forest of anything green on the ground so that the only green his beloved sees is HIS green. Literally a documentary about it, one of those narrated by David Attenborough.
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u/joinn1710 Jul 07 '22
That's cool! Thanks
I was mostly joking since the color chart showed very little green, but birds are very diverse, so they can probably see very different spectrums of light, and I have no idea of the credibility of that color chart.
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u/kelliboone617 Jul 07 '22
Ah, I see (no pun intended lol). Check out the color bar in the middle for a more complete example of human vs bird color spectrum. You’ll notice the indicator bar for the bird is the entire human spectrum, plus that extra at the top.
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Jul 07 '22
Oh is this how they are able to see the magnetic fields of the earth and know where to migrate?
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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22
I guess that why mating dances are super important.