One of the brightest impressions left after getting to know Spanish culture is bullfighting. The spectacle of the confrontation between a man and a huge bull - a torero and a toro - was also the reason for the birth of one of the most striking delusions associated with the color perception of a four-legged victim of a spectacular and tragic show.
Instructions
Step 1
The well-established and widespread opinion about the irritating effect of red objects on a bull is taken as an axiom. True, we are talking about a statement expressed outside the scientific community. Researchers of the features of mammalian vision say with confidence that animals for the most part are deprived of the wonderful, from the point of view of humans, ability to see the world around them in bright colors.
Step 2
And although there is also no unity in the scientific world, the presence of points of intersection of views suggests weak color vision in dogs, cats and some members of the squirrel family. And what about the relatives of the ancient tours - domesticated bulls and cows? It turns out that the color scale of the bullish world consists of a part of the red spectrum of low intensity and, in descending order in perception, gray, green and blue shades, more precisely, reminders of them. The structure of the eye of cattle, as the subfamily of bulls is called in animal husbandry, indicates the presence of two types of nerve photoreceptor cells in the back of the retina: rods, which are responsible for black and white twilight vision, and cones, which provide daytime color perception of images.
Step 3
So what makes the two-horned giant angry, teased in the first two thirds of bullfighting with a large double-sided cloak (pink-yellow or pink-blue), called “kapote”, and in the final third, a small mulet cloak made of bright red flannel. Not color, but obsessive waving. The presence of a "blind spot" in the field of view in the area of the nose, a good reaction to movement and poor vision of distant details irritate the animal, which already has a bad character.
Step 4
One of the secrets that annoy toro flawlessly is its smell. The red muleta preserves traces of blood, which were imperceptible for the spectators of the bullfight, left after previous fights. A keen sense of smell warns the animal of danger, makes it look for an enemy, become ferocious and attack the stimulus, which is played by the bullfighter or other participants in the battle - picadors, banderilleros, horses … Fortunately for two-legged opponents, the bull's poor eyesight often makes these attacks fruitless. But this is not always the case.
