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Most people not involved in animal husbandry or veterinary medicine do not know much about bulls. There is a common belief that bulls cannot tolerate the color red, and some claim that these animals are completely color blind. To find out whether there is truth in these statements, one must understand whether bulls are colorblind 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 vision disorder in which the ability to distinguish colors is partially or completely absent. This anomaly can be caused 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 do not really distinguish all the colors available to humans. However, this is due to the structure of the visual organs and is observed in all representatives of this species, and therefore is not defined as a disorder. Therefore, it is impossible to call bulls colorblind.
Features of cattle vision
In order to find out what colors bulls perceive, it is necessary to know the features of the visual organs of these artiodactyls.
The structure of the eye of representatives of cattle is in many ways similar to that of humans. Consisting of the vitreous body, lens and membrane, it is connected to the brain via the optic nerve.
The eye shell is conventionally divided into three types:
- Outdoor - includes the cornea and sclera. The sclera is attached to muscles that allow the eyeball to move 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 promotes optimal heat exchange in the eye.
- Inner or retina - converts the reflection of light into a nerve signal going to the brain.
The light-sensitive cells that are responsible for color perception are located in the retina of the eye. They are rods and cones. Their number and location determines 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 the green, blue, yellow, red, black and white spectrum, 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 for them is the ability of panoramic vision. Cows, unlike humans, due to their somewhat elongated pupils, can see 330° around them. In addition, they react faster to movement compared to humans.
As for the range at which 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 cannot see objects in this area. In addition, the clarity of distinguishing objects is lost beyond a radius of 2 - 3 m from them.
Another feature of these artiodactyls is night vision. With the onset of twilight, cows' vision sharpens hundreds of times, which allows them to notice in time hypothetical predators that hunt mainly at night. Moreover, 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 about bulls and the color red
As for the myth that bulls become aggressive when they see the color red, as with color blindness, this belief has a scientific refutation. As noted above, bulls actually recognize the color red, albeit very weakly. But this has nothing to do with increasing the level of aggression.
The belief goes back to Spanish bullfighting, in which matadors, when confronted by a bull, wave a red cloth - a muleta - in front of him. Fierce confrontations between 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 of absolutely any color, since the animal reacts not to color, but to sudden movements in front of it.They made it red for practical purposes: it makes the blood on it less noticeable.
The bull's anger also has an explanation. For the performance, animals of a special breed are used, which are trained from birth to show aggressiveness. Before the fight they are not fed for some time, so that the already not the most docile animal becomes irritated, and thanks to this the spectacle becomes more spectacular. The crimson color only emphasizes the general atmosphere of passion. Therefore, the expression “like a red rag to a bull” is just a beautiful turn of phrase and has no basis in reality.
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 cause them to fly into a rage, as is often shown in films. In reality, color perception is not as important to them as vision in the dark or wide viewing angles.
