Its all Bull

Q:
Dear All Knowing 100 Hour Board,

I recently read a news article on penguins fear of the color red, can you explain this phenomenon?

Regards,
80

A:

Dear My Monochromatic Friend,

I do not know where you get your facts, but you are clearly misled in this assumption. Bulls charge after the red cape - although interestingly enough it isn't because of the color (bulls are colorblind) but because of the motion. The idea that penguins are afraid of red is just, well bull.

Penguins eyes are attuned to life at sea, particularly underwater. It is disputed whether they are nearsighted on land or not (I've seen facts to both ends - although you can look at Sivak, J.; Howland, H. & McGill-Harelstad, P. (1987) "Vision of the Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) in Air and Water " Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 229(1257): 467-472). But it is universally acknowledged that the eyes are set to help them see prey and hunters underwater. This means the ability to define blues and greens well. Red is not a distinguished color for penguins. I.e - they do not see red or at least clearly. There is no evolutionary or biological reason to either. In fact evolution points to why they don't (or at least exploits that fact). That is most krill (a favorite penguin dish) is typically red, a color lost in the ocean blues and protects them from the penguins.
A recent Harvard experiment regarding egg-stealing in penguins, involved placing red painted 'eggs' in nests. They could track the eggs around the nests easily - as the penguins couldn't tell the difference.

So - no fear of ruby red slippers or anything. Just afraid of sharks and normal things. I guess they couldn't tell if another penguin got sunburned either - too bad for those Madagascar penguins.

Regards,
March of the Exploding Penguins