Background About Colors

Most people don't give much thought as to the reason behind the coloration of any particular animal. However, when it comes to the colors and patterns on animals, there is always a reason behind it. For example, a tiger has orange and black stripes for camoflage. Although the previous statement seems relatively self-explanatory, it is much more complicated than that. Human eyes can process red, green, and blue (RGB), so tigers look orange to us; they are quite conspicuous amongst the green trees and vegetation covering the forest floor. However, we must keep in mind that tigers have evolved to hunt deer, and deer do not have RGB vision. Instead, they can only see green and blue, which makes the orange stripes look green. In this fashion, tigers can easily blend in with their surrounding environment - the orange stripes resembling leaves and the black stripes resembling shadow. For me, learning that there was more to animal coloration than the eye can see was very fascinating, and I hope you learn something new as well!