8/28/2023 0 Comments Cat with tiger stripesHumans have what is called a trichromat eye, meaning our vision can process red, blue and green-based colors, giving us the ability to see tigers appearing as orange. You may be thinking, in a dark green jungle, wouldn’t bright orange and black stripes be super obvious? While this color combination makes a tiger relatively easy to spot for human eyes, recent research published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface used computer simulations and image processing techniques to see how detectable a species is in its natural environment to other native animals in the same habitat. ![]() These stripes help it to camouflage with filtered sunlight and the shadow of trees so that it can’t be easily spotted by its prey. When in the forest or the jungle, its black stripes and brown fur imitate dappled sunlight. They work in a way that biologists call “disruptive coloration,” breaking up a tiger’s bulky shape and large size so that this magnificent creature can blend in better with trees and tall grasses. Here’s where the tiger’s markings become very handy. But as a solitary cat (tigers are not pack animals and do not hunt in a group like lions do), the tiger relies on pure stealth for its hunting. Since tigers are apex predators at the tippy-top of the food chain, they don’t need to worry about hiding from animals that might eat them. We know nature doesn’t do much by accident or for no reason, so what are the stripes on tigers for? A Tiger’s Stripes Provide Camouflage ![]() ![]() Jaguars and leopards have their rosette spots, lions have their golden fur and male lions their mane, but tigers are unique as they strut around jungles and grasslands with their vertical-striped markings, which range from brown to black. Tigers are one of the easiest of the big cats to identify because of their dramatic striped coats.
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