Story of “Blue” Animals

Let me begin with a question. Are Blue Animals Truly Blue?

Sometimes, nature plays tricks on us. What we think to be true, may not be. Animals,
for example have lots of secrets, like their remarkable use of color to attract mates or
disguise themselves from predators. Turns out, they have been using colors in ways that
have been tricking us human as well. Animals have evolved to come into every color of the
rainbow, but with some exceptions. Animals are not blue.

The pigments in animals’ bodies mostly come from their diets. In example, if you ever
see a flamingo chick, you might not be able to recognize it. Flamingos are actually born gray,
but as they age they will gain the pink colorization. The color of their feather is actually the
result of shrimps they eat. Crustaceans like shrimps have some kind of pigments called
carotenoids. This pigment is used by the flamingos to turn their feathers into pink. So, the
reason why the color green, brown, and red are pretty common in nature is because the
creatures with such colors are consuming things that help them develop the colors.

This is the first reason why blue-colored animals can rarely be found in nature.

An animal’s color typically comes from pigments (color chemicals that are produced
by special cells), which often takes the form of pink, orange, or even green. Animals can
produce many different types of color pigments, but blue is a problem. Some animals appear
blue, but they are deceiving you. Instead of using pigments, most blue animals have
developed a way to deceive your eyes, and play with light using physical structures to
appear blue. Most of the blue you think you know, really aren’t blue.

The blue morpho butterfly (the one you see in the emoji), for instance, appears blue,
but it only looks this way because of how clever the microscopic structures in its wing scales
reflect the light. Its wing scales are shaped in ridges that causes sunlight to bend in such a
way that cancel out other colors, reflecting only blue. By looking at the blue morpho butterfly
from different angles, reveals other colors besides blue. If the scales were shaped differently
or if something other than air was filling the gaps between them, the blue would vanish.
Wetting with alcohol further disrupts this light-based color scatter, making it appear green
until the alcohol dries. The blue morpho butterfly isn’t the only example of this either; other
animals appearing blue use similar tactics to deceive our eyes, including parrots and
peacocks, also have similar mechanism in their feathers to make the color of their feathers
blue. The same thing goes to your blue eyes if you had them.

Less than 1% of animals actually have blue pigments in them. That 1% with blue are
very rare. They are true blues. Within that 1%, Olive wing butterfly is one of very few insect
species which produces true blue pigment.

Blue will continue to remain a rarity in nature. All of the other animals only appear
blue. We may perceive blue, but it’s because these animals have all evolved a way to trick
our eyes, using the physics of light to control what we see.

They say you have to see something with your own eyes to believe it. But nature
shows that your eyes are easily deceived.

This is the end of my story about “blue” animals. Thank you for your ears.