Science behind bull and red

Spanish bullfight

Everyone knows that one of Spain's most famous sports is bullfighting. Spanish bullfighting originated from ancient Spanish religious activities (killing bulls for offering sacrifices to gods). In the 13th century, King Alfonso X of Spain began this kind of sacrifice to gods and later evolved into bullfighting performances (the real bullfighting performance appeared in the mid-18th century). Today’s Spanish bullfighters’ costumes still inherit the traditions of their predecessors in the 16th century. The main bullfighter generally chooses mainly red clothing, with gold edges and some golden ornaments on it, making it look dazzling and radiant when performing actions in the sun. In addition, red cloth and cloak are also two very important tools. The red cloth is the patent of the main bullfighter. In fact, the so-called red cloth has one side red and the other yellow, which coincides with the color of the Spanish flag.

Bulls get angry when they see red?

Spanish bullfighters use red cloth to anger the bull and make the bull rush over. Therefore, many people think that the bull can see the red cloth, and red can stimulate the bull and make him excited. Many animation works will spoof bullfighting competitions-put red paint on a certain place, and the bull will immediately rush over when he sees it, and even scare many people from wearing red clothes to the pasture with bulls. So why does the red thing make the bulls so unhappy? Does the bull really get angry when he sees red?

Can a cow see red?

On the human retina, cone cells are indeed relatively developed, with red, green, and blue light-sensitive pigments (the current academic circles are still slightly controversial), so the colors of surrounding objects can be seen. Red is the visible light with the longest wavelength. It is the same as blood and flame. It is easy to cause human feelings of excitement, urgency, and excitement. Therefore, people take it for granted that bulls are also angry when they see red things.

Was the bull irritated by seeing red? To clarify this problem, one must understand whether the bull can see the color.

Humans are a lucky mammal, because most mammals have lost different types of phytochromes in the process of evolution. Only a few primates have obtained the third phytochrome through gene duplication. Most mammals have only two phytochromes, and these animals are called dichromatic visual animals. Some animals have only one photosensitive pigment, and these animals are monochromatic visual animals. For these animals, the world has no color, only brightness, just like how we feel when watching a black and white movie.

So, how many phytochromes does cow have? Professor Gerald H. Jacobs of the University of California, Santa Barbara found the answer to this question using scintillation electroretinography (ERG). Through this method, it is found that there are two kinds of cone cells in the retina of cows. One kind of cow cone cells receives light with a wavelength between red light and green light. It is very close to the red photosensitive pigment of humans, but is only a sensitive wavelength It is slightly shorter (555 nanometers); another type of cone cell can feel blue light (451 nanometers), which is longer than the wavelength of the human blue cone. Because of the congenital absence of cone cells that sense green light, the vision of cows is similar to that of patients with red-green color blindness caused by mutations in green phytochromes. They can distinguish long-wavelength red light and short-wavelength blue light, but for those in the long-wave region. Light lacks the ability to distinguish, so red, orange, yellow, and green are just colors of different shades for cattle.

Therefore, it is certain that the bull, as a dichroic visual animal, has only two types of cone cells in the eye, and its visual world is obviously not as colorful as humans, especially the ability to distinguish light in the region from green to red. In terms of abilities, cattle and humans are far apart.

Why was the bull irritated by the red cloth of the bullfight?

Since the bull can't distinguish between red, orange, yellow and green, why is it irritated by the red cloth in the hands of a matador? As early as 1923, George. M. Stratton of the University of California studied this problem. He found 40 cows and experimented with flags of four colors: white, black, red, and green. Stratton found that it was not the color of the flag that attracted the attention of the bulls, but the brightness and the degree of waving of the flag.

Therefore, the bull was not irritated by the red, but reacted to the movement of the red cloth and the threat of the bullfighter and ran into it. Therefore, when people visit the ranch where there are more bulls (especially bulls in heat), they must not wear clothes that are too flamboyant and easy to move, and they must not take provocative poses to ensure their safety.

Although bullfighting has a long history, this savage blood-blotting game has also been opposed by more and more people of insight. Every year during the bullfight, there are demonstrations and condemnation of this "bloody" return to ancestors. Therefore, the bullfighting performance in Spain has gradually lost its former glory, and the scene of the western mountains has been fading.