Exploiting Colorblindness
Ah, yes. The massive animal that somehow camouflages despite being bright orange. But as researchers described in 2019, tigers capitalize on the number of color receptors used by their most common prey. Many ungulates (hoofed animals like deer and boar) are red-green colorblind, which means that the tiger’s striped body blends right into the greenery of the forest undergrowth. Mammalian hair is pretty much limited to browns, blacks, and shades of red and yellow, so the tiger’s luscious coat is the best way to appear lackluster in its preys’ eyes. But now I wish that lime-green tigers existed.
