this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (4 children)

this sounds dumb. if that was the reason then why arent they just green so that theyre camoflaged to EVERY animal and not just those with bad eyes

[โ€“] [email protected] 63 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Mammals don't come in green. We have 2 colours available to us, in different amounts: eumelanin, which is dark brown to black, and pheomelanin, which is yellow/red. We can mix those up in any way, or none (for white), but it'll never be green.

Now, many other animals don't have green either, peacock feathers for example, have brown pigment, but they have a structure that makes it look green and blue from wave interference.

Unfortunately, you can't really do that with fur, since you need to look at fur from all directions, not just the front.

So, mammals don't get green fur.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago

Then how do you explain this?

[โ€“] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Evolution is throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks (by sticking I mean reproducing bc you have better traits). If every single one of their prey and predators have this color blindness then orange and green would have the same effectiveness and whichever trait comes out first. If a prey/predator evolved to have better color vision then it would quickly become a disadvantage and after millions of years it's possible they evolve to have green fur.

There could be other benefits like being easier to attract mates.

Also some animals can see infrared, so even if their fur was perfect for the environment they could still have issues by being spotted, in which case the color doesn't matter as much and the colors for mating becomes more important.

Edit: Wording.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Related to this - all fabrics used by the military need to be both Berry-amendment compliant, and NIR compliant. What that means is that, first, they need to be made in the USA (because you don't want to outsource military equipment if you end up going to war with the country that makes shit for you), and second, it needs to not show up like a sore thumb under infrared light, A lot of fabrics and dyes will show up as hot spots under IR, which means that they show up great with night vision. NIR-compliant fabrics will still appear camouflaged under IR.

That's why those nylon-cotton blend Crytek combat pants are something like $450, when the Chinese knock-offs made in poly-cotton are about $70.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As a biologist, I'm always so happy with how versed your average Lemming is on evolution versus the bad place.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I'm not exactly average, but I'm definitely not a biologist lol

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Iโ€™ve also heard green coloring is hard to achieve for mammals, but iirc the source was some tumblr post so take that with a grain of salt.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I realized I couldn't think of a single green mammal so I DDG'd it and it's true. In a nutshell, the pigments that give mammals their colors are limited to warm colors (so no blue or green) and you could also fake a green color by reflecting mostly just green light off you (it's how birds do it) but it seems to be something only feathers and scales are good at, not fur.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah the only one I can think of are sloths, which is kinda cheating cuz their green color comes from algae in their fur instead of natural pigmentation lol
Glad to have it confirmed tho, thanks!

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

A) Evolution is not directed. If a pre-tiger happens to be a more advantageous colour, it will have more offspring. There is no goal.

B) An orange tiger has the same camouflage from its prey's point of view as a green one, which is the thing that really matters. There is only one species a tiger is afraid of, and it's humans. I would wager that the orange also happens to act as a signal colour, both to other tigers and other predators (such as humans). Less run-ins and less territorial dispute sound pretty good.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't know any animal with green fur. Reptiles and birds, sure. Maybe green fur does not work ๐Ÿคท

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

You just need an algal symbiote.