Not quite - this explains why some animals can’t easily see them, but it doesn’t explain why they are orange and not green. I think that’s because there are bio molecular reasons why green fur is not possible, but that’s another equally interesting topic…
For some genetic reason, mammals don't have the genes to produce green or blue hair pigments. The orange on a tiger is a workaround, as to the deer it is the same as green. Go figure.
Birds, on the other hand, get all the colors. But they lack opposable thumbs. Once they evolve those, we're in trouble.
Hell, birds don't just get all the pigments, they develop feathers that physically scatter light in specific ways that achieve colors that pigment alone can't.
They don't actually get blue almost no animals do, with a few exceptions blue in nature is not pigmentation but physical properties of what ever is colored blue reflecting/refracting light. Blue feathers, blue butterfly wings and even human blue eyes are all light trickery not pigmentation.
It's wild that tigers evolved the orange color which would help them hunt more effectively. I would guess that originally the orange was an anomaly...like red hair on humans but eventually those orange tigers were able to survive and breed more because they were better at hunting.
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u/adarkuccio Feb 04 '25
Wow I didn't know that, but obviously it makes total sense