Almost like our eyes evolved to give danger its own colour.
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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This must be utterly terrifying for them.
Would not green be the obvious route then?
AFAIK green is more expensive to produce. Plants use it since it's good at absorbing sunlight, but what's the advantage to a tiger, if their prey can't tell the difference?
Desperately need me a community just for tiger facts like this and pictures of tigers. Greatest of the Big Cats
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Do the tigers know they are orange?
Probably not, the same way humans don't know we are striped.
Ist is possible to make the own pattern visible? Like with special Cameras and Light?
Do humans know tigers are green?
Asking the real questions
No, they too are dichromats
Meanwhile my colorblind ass:
Wouldn't a mutation in the deer sight to see orange be vastly evolutionary beneficial?
Competitive advantage over their deer peers.
It could, but it might also lead to something harmful for the deer at the same time. I'm not sure if the gene affecting the deer's eyesight is known, but it could be a pleiotropic gene (a gene that influences multiple traits at once).
If that's the case, and the other effect is negative and somehow spreads through the population, it could become a future issue for the deer. Think about humansβwe lost the ability to produce our own vitamin C. Almost every other mammal can produce their own (except for hamsters). When this happened, it didnβt harm us right away, so it spread through the population. But over time, it led to issues that werenβt a problem before, like scurvy.
Same could happen to the deer.
Presumably yes, but its still down to a roll of the dice whether a mutation like that happens in the first place, and whether the individuals who have that mutation live long enough to breed, and whether that mutation actually gets passed down, etc
Only in areas with tigers, and then it would only express itself enough if there were enough evolutionary pressure exclusively on that survival tactic.
As long as other causes of death happen to deer in tiger territories and as long as speed remains a good survival strategy, minor mutations that would only provide an advantage in extreme specific scenarios like a tiger stalking them wouldn't have a chance to be spread.
There's also a whole host of additional brain power that needs to be dedicated to more complex colour blending and processing, and that may add enough delay to offset any potential gain in recognizing a threat.
minor mutations that would only provide an advantage in extreme specific scenarios β¦ wouldn't have a chance to be spread.
Most north europeans can digest lactose.
North Europe is a frozen wasteland where nothing grows for like a third of the year, being able to digest lactose in those months is hugely advantageous. I don't think "winter" counts as an "extreme specific scenario"
Hey northern europe is not all Iceland.
Black death IIRC. Milk was one of few easily availabke foods when farmers died off. So, extremely specific scenario.
It's been far more important, evolution wise, to be agile and quick enough to avoid predators. Like a security camera can only tell you how someone was murdered.
And then soon we'd have green tigers.
There are no green mammals because of some biology reason I can't remember.
Also, the vast majority of mammals don't see green either.
Yeah I think it was a balance patch, because mammals that could photosynthesize were too OP.
Basically all mammalian pigmentation is just melanin, so mammal colorings are mostly just different amounts of brown combined with different amounts of red, and some animals don't even have the red.
Some birds and insects are green.
True, but they arenβt mammals.
No, why is it so hard for mammals to make green? Even green eyes are just a reflection/interferrence trick.
It's hard to do with fur, I believe. Birds and bugs also don't have green pigment, I believe. But they also don't have fur.
Right, i just remembered that green and blue in feathers is also just a interferrence trick. Same in bug shell.
This is also why hunting vests are bright orange. Easy for humans to spot, and deer get confused by there being a fucking tiger loose in New England.
Ok this makes complete sense now, thank you!
Apparently pink works as well, if a hunter wants a second color vest
That works on the same principle, except the deer thinks you're a panther.
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Tigers are generally crepuscular which means theyβre most active around dawn or dusk, when the sun is very low in the sky. Their orange fur does not stand out so well when everything looks orange under the golden light of dawn.
Thank you, evolution, for allowing me to see orange so I can get an head start and outrun a mother fucking tiger!
outrun a mother fucking tiger
You only need to outrun your travelbuddy.
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Oooh I just thought nature was fucking stupid
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