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Most people who are not related to animal husbandry or veterinary medicine do not know much about bulls. There is a common misconception that bulls cannot tolerate red, and some argue that these animals are completely color blind. To find out whether there is truth in these statements, one should understand whether the bulls are color blind or not.
Is it true that bulls are colorblind?
Despite popular belief, bulls, like cows, are not colorblind in the full sense of the word. Color blindness is a feature of vision in which the ability to distinguish colors is partially or completely absent. This anomaly can be triggered by eye injury or age-related changes, but is often inherited. However, regardless of whether color blindness is acquired or genetic, it is characteristic only of humans and some species of primates.
Bulls and other cattle really do not distinguish all the colors available to humans. However, this is due to the structure of the organs of vision and is observed in all representatives of this species, and therefore is not defined as a violation. Therefore, it is impossible to call bulls color-blind.
Features of the vision of cattle
In order to find out what colors bulls perceive, it is necessary to know the features of the organs of vision of these artiodactyls.
The eye of representatives of cattle in its structure is in many respects similar to the human eye. Consisting of the vitreous body, the lens and the shell, it is connected to the brain through the optic nerve.
The eye shell is conditionally divided into three types:
- Outdoor – Includes cornea and sclera. Attached to the sclera are muscles that provide movement of the eyeball in the orbit. The transparent cornea conducts light reflected from objects to the retina.
- Average – consists of the iris, ciliary body and choroid. The iris, like a lens, directs light from the cornea into the eye, regulating its flow. In addition, the color of the eyes depends on its pigment. The choroid contains blood vessels. The ciliary body ensures the activity of the lens and contributes to optimal heat transfer of the eye.
- Inner, or retina – carries out the transformation of the reflection of light into a nerve signal going to the brain.
Light-sensitive cells that are responsible for the perception of color are located just in the retina. They are rods and cones. Their number and location determine how well the animal sees during the day, how it navigates in the dark, and what colors it perceives. Scientists have found that bulls and cows can see in green, blue, yellow, red, black and white spectra, but the saturation of these colors is very low, and their shades in the perception of animals merge into a single tone.
However, this does not prevent these mammals from fully existing, since they do not rely on color to survive. Much more important to them is the ability of panoramic vision. Cows, unlike humans, can see 330° around themselves due to their slightly elongated pupil. In addition, they react faster to movement than humans.
As for the range at which the bulls are able to see certain objects, it does not differ in length. These animals have a blind spot at a distance of up to 20 cm from the tip of the nose – they simply do not see objects in this zone. In addition, the clarity of distinguishing objects is lost already outside a radius of 2 – 3 m from them.
Another feature of these artiodactyls is night vision. With the onset of twilight, the eyesight of cows sharpens hundreds of times, which allows them to notice hypothetical predators in time, which hunt mainly at night. At the same time, in the dark, the eyes of cows and bulls tend to glow, like a cat’s, due to a special pigment that refracts light in a special way.
The myth of bulls and the color red
As for the myth that bulls become aggressive at the sight of red, as in the case of color blindness, this belief has a scientific refutation. As noted above, bulls actually recognize red, albeit very weakly. But that has nothing to do with increasing the level of aggression.
The belief goes back to the Spanish bullfight, in which the matadors, when confronted with a bull, wave a red cloth in front of him – a muleta. The fierce confrontation between the beast and man, combined with such a spectacular attribute, led many to believe that it was the bright color of the muleta that provoked the bull to attack. In fact, the muleta can be absolutely any color, since the animal does not react to color, but to sudden movements in front of it. It was made red based on practical purposes: so the blood on it is less noticeable.
The exasperation of the bull also has an explanation. For the performance, animals of a special breed are used, in which the manifestation of aggressiveness is trained from birth. Before the fight, they are not fed for some time, so that the already not the most accommodating animal becomes irritated, and the spectacle, thanks to this, is more spectacular. Crimson color only emphasizes the general atmosphere of passion. Therefore, the expression “like a red rag for a bull” is just a beautiful turn of speech and has no real basis.
Conclusion
The question of whether bulls are colorblind or not can be answered with confidence in the negative. Bulls are able to distinguish a number of colors, including red. However, the scarlet tone does not make them fly into a rage, as is often shown in films. In fact, color perception is not as important to them as vision in the dark or a wide viewing angle.
