Why Do Bulls Hate Red Why Does It Make Them Un Bull Ievably Mad

You would be familiar with the concept of bullfighting where a bullfighter waves a bright red cape in front of a bull, who charges towards the cape violently, but you would be surprised to know that the reason the bull charges is not the red cape but its movement!Bulls are like all cattle species and thus, are color blind to the color red. They can only see a few colors such as blue, yellow, or green, but find it hard to differentiate between any colors in order to be angry at a single color.The true reason behind why a bull charges at the bullfighter or matador is not because of the red cape he waves in front of it, but the actual movement of the cape. The tradition of bullfighting has been quite popular in Spain and many other countries and started many years ago. In a bullfight, the matador waves and whips a red cloth, also called a muleta, to anger the bull in front of him so that the bull charges towards him. However, the bull does not actually hate the color red, but the movement of waving the cape is what unsettles it and causes it to charge towards the matador. The bull will still charge towards the cape if it was blue, green, or even white. Like most mammals, when bulls think that they are in danger, a fight or flight response is activated in their brains which can lead them to either face the threat by charging at it or fleeing from the situation to safety. In a bullfight, the bull is surrounded by a live audience of thousands of people cheering and shouting, which plays a great role in making the bull angry, distressed, confused, and irritated. The added movements of the matador whipping and waving his red cape lead to the bull deciding to charge at the bullfighter to eliminate the threat. This has led to the widespread belief that bulls hate the color red and only attack the bullfighter because he is waving a red muleta. However, it is a false claim. The color red is chosen to mask the blood of the bull when it is killed at the end of the bullfight. Bulls are actually partially color blind and cannot even see the color red. In fact, there are three different rounds in a bullfight and a red muleta is only used in the third and last round of the fight. In the first two rounds, a pink or yellow muleta or cape is used, and the bull still charges towards the cape all the same to attack it.Many experiments have been conducted to check the ability of bulls to perceive colors like red, blue, white, and green, and observe their reactions to different colors. A test was performed with a live bull put in an enclosure along with red, blue, and white flags on poles. Regardless of the color, it was found that the bull charged at all three flags. Then three dummies dressed in red, blue, and white were put in the bull’s enclosure but the results were the same. The bull attacked all three no matter which color they were dressed in. Even a live person dressed all in red was put in the bull’s enclosure, but the bull attacked the moving cowboys that were going around the enclosure even though they were not dressed in red. Therefore, it is actually the movement of various things that scares and makes the bull angry and irritated, and not the color red.If you enjoyed this article, why not also read about why do giraffes have horns and why do gorillas beat their chest here at Kidadl?Why is bullfighting considered cruel?Bullfighting has recently become a controversial topic as it caught the attention of many people for being cruel and unjust towards bulls involved in the sport. This is because bulls are usually killed by the matador at the end of the third round.Bulls are often seen as angry and violent animals. People in some cultures of the world also take care not to wear anything red or cover up their red clothes in front of a bull as it may anger it. These misconceptions were mainly perpetuated by the practice of bullfighting which started many years ago. Before entering the ring where the bullfighting takes place, bulls are purposely aggravated so that when they enter the ring, they are already irritated and ready to charge at any moving object. Then they are tortured in cruel ways before finally dying at the hands of the matador at the end of the three rounds of a bullfight. The matador stabs them with his sword while the audience cheers on. It is only in rare cases that fighting bull is pardoned and will be sent back to the ranch it was raised on. The red muleta is just a way to mask the blood and is a distraction for the bull, who is less likely to attack the matador himself as he waves the muleta away from himself at his side. Therefore, nowadays some countries of the world have banned the sport while others continue the practice but do not allow killing the bull at the end.Some people argue that cattle raised for slaughter actually have a much shorter lifespan than fighting bulls, which live for about four to five years before being sent to fight a matador or bullfighter before thousands of people. Moreover, the bull is killed much more efficiently and quickly than cattle sent to slaughterhouses. However, it is still unfair to torture and aggravate an innocent bull for the sake of entertainment.Are bulls naturally aggressive?It is common to assume that bulls are naturally aggressive animals that may charge at you at the slightest movement, but not all bulls are as violent and it is a range of factors that makes fighting bulls seem like violent animals.It is quite unlikely that any bull picked at random would charge at a person waving a red cape or muleta in front of it. In fact, bulls raised for bullfighting are specifically bred for aggression by testing which cows in a herd react violently in a test involving a mock cape or muleta. The bulls that will be born from the selected cows will be sent to fight the matador when they are about four to five years old. These bulls are not tested for aggression themselves as a lot of breeders believe that bulls will form memories of the mock fight and there would be a chance that they may not charge towards the bullfighter in the actual bullfights. Cattle are also social animals that need to be in a herd to learn about social structures and behavior. Those bulls raised in a herd tend to be calmer and less likely to become angry at any moving objects. In a similar way, a bull raised in this manner would also be less likely to charge at the bullfighter when he waves a red cape in front of it. Thus, bulls raised for bullfighting are purposely kept isolated from other bulls on special ranches.In some cases, fighting bulls also grow up with the least amount of human intervention as well. So when they are suddenly put in a completely new environment where there are humans that are taunting and jabbing at them before the fight to aggravate them, it will make them very irritated and confused, and eventually lead to them charging at the matador in a bid to eliminate the danger. Thus, bulls are not inherently aggressive and dangerous, but this image of them has been popularized by the practice of bullfighting along with the misbelief that they hate the color red.What colors can bulls see?A bull is able to perceive colors such as red, orange, yellow, and some shades of green. However, it is difficult for the bull to distinguish between these colors.Like most cattle, a bull has dichromatic vision, which means that they have two types of cone cells. Cone cells are cells located in the retina of the eye that help animals detect color in their vision. Humans have three types of cone cells for the colors - red, green, and blue, but a bull only has the cone cells which perceive the green and blue colors, which it can differentiate between in a controlled environment. Humans are also blessed with the ability to see objects clearly at all distances, whether they are near or far. A bull, on the other hand, has a short-sighted vision which will make it difficult for the bull to see things that are far away from it. These factors, combined with the chaos and environment during bullfights, are bound to aggravate the bull and cause it to charge against any threatening movement of an object. In that situation, the bull is not observing the color of the cape or muleta but is actually only reacting to the movements the cape is making.The fact that bulls cannot distinguish between colors properly, much less react differently to the color red, has been tested several times by placing objects of three different colors in front of them and observing their reactions. It was repeatedly found that the bulls charged at the objects regardless of their colors. Even when it was placed in an enclosure with a live human dressed all in red along with cowboys dressed in white moving around the enclosure, the bulls still went charging only after the cowboys as their movement irritated the bulls, not their color. This showed that even though bulls can perceive colors, they do not distinguish between them enough to exhibit a different behavior towards each color.Do animals hate specific colors?While it may make sense for them to do so, most animals do not hate any specific colors but can associate colors to events that happened in the course of their lives and learn to react accordingly to them.Other animals perceive color very differently from humans. Most mammals we come across in our daily life, such as cattle, horses, and dogs, have less than the three-cone cells that humans have, but others, like the mantis shrimp, have about ten times more cone cells than us! However, there is not much evidence on how these animals react to different colors differently. Horses are sometimes known to become nervous and wary around bright fluorescent colors as these colors would look very bright and odd in their dichromatic vision. It has also been observed that elephants can distinguish between red and other colors, but like bulls, they do not react negatively or differently to the color. Monkeys and humans, on the other hand, have evolved to have a slight aversion to the color red. Some theorize that the reason for this is that red is the color of blushing and blood, something which is mostly seen in dangerous situations. This might have caused primates to become alert or wary of the color red. Many other animals who can see much more colors than cattle or elephants use this ability to find food or identify predators. Therefore, no animal actually hates specific colors but uses its ability to see colors in different ways, and its reaction to an object of a certain color probably has more to do with the object and its movements than its color.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! 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