It's in your nature
colorful animals
Audio 02:34
The Yemen chameleon is one of the most spectacularly colored animals.
© AFP / RALF HIRSCHBERGER
By: Florent Guignard Follow
2 mins
Why do some animals sport a flamboyant coat or plumage, while others display more discreet colors?
In nature, it is rarely by chance.
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Beautiful colors, it's not just to look good!
They have their uses, acquired by animals over the course of evolution.
So, yes, it's true, it's first to be beautiful and to seduce and reproduce.
In species with sexual dimorphism – when the male and the female are different – it is very often the most colorful male, because it is the female who chooses her partner.
And the brighter the colors, the more they promise excellent health and genes, all the qualities of a good breeder.
The more the blackbird's beak turns orange, the more the blackbird will succumb.
The minnow, a somewhat
bling-bling
fish , takes on golden highlights during the mating season.
And in the peacock, the female looks very bland next to the male who is doing the wheel with his turquoise and emerald tail.
Red warns of danger
Colors are used to communicate.
Special mention to the chameleon, capable of changing its appearance in less than 30 seconds, thanks to its chromatophores which contract or stretch according to its mood.
Chameleons have color battles rather than physically confronting each other.
Red, in nature, means danger, and it is to scare that some animals wear it.
Like the migratory monarch, a butterfly which entered the red list of endangered species of the IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature this week.
Its wings are orange-red, to warn predators that it is inedible and that it would make them vomit if swallowed.
The color of the seasons
Color, to escape predators and blend into the landscape: this is the case of the snow partridge or the ermine, which take on the color of the rocks in summer, and of the snow in winter.
In mammals, where the sense of smell is more developed than sight, flamboyant colors would serve no purpose except to attract the eye of predators.
So their coat is neutral, gray or brown.
Why keep your colors when you can't see them or be seen by your peers?
A fish that went blind while living in deep water also lost its colors.
Conversely, English researchers have shown that animals that have a sting, or venom, display more bright colors.
No need to remain discreet when you have the means to defend yourself.
In the IUCN report published this week, elephants remain classified as endangered, because of their ivory which attracts poachers.
But more and more elephants are defenseless.
The explanation lies in natural selection.
Some elephants are born naturally helpless, and those, of course, are spared by hunters.
They can therefore reproduce, and this character trait, originally a minority, is transmitted from generation to generation, which means that there are more and more defenseless elephants.
Against poachers, it is the best defense.
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Environment
Wildlife
Biodiversity