if animals only see in black and white then why do birds and butterflies have so many colours?

Question

animals must see in colour too as we are led to beleive these colours are to attract mates

Answer 1

Not all animals see black and white alone.
Anyway, seeing color and being colourful are two different things. Firstly, in the eye are two types of cells called rods and cones.
These rods and cones contain pigments that enable you to see light in its different wavelengths.
The rods allow you to see things in monochrome, black and white, and the cones on the other hand help see in the trichromatic spectrum of the red, green and blue wavelengths of light.

Skin color, or body color is determined by a completely different pigment called melanin. And in humans the amount on melanin under your skin depends on your genes and your environment. People who have a lot of exposure to the sun will be darker skinned and therefore have more melanin, and on the other hand, people who have less exposure to the sun, will be paler.

Butterflies have melanin but I do not know why all the colors - maybe just for attraction. However, I do not know what amounts of melanin determine yellow for example. Also, most vertebrates do not use cone cells. So, I guess that means that butterflies either have color vision or not. Just remember that body color and seeing color are determined by two completely different things.

Answer 2

Animals can see in colour. Some do it better than others, it depends on how they perceive objects and how their brains interpret what they see. Birds and butterflies are mainly brightly coloured to help them attract a mate, or to warn off another creature. I.e. The robin will puff up his red chest when challenged by another.

Answer 3

Animals that are primarily noctournal do not need color vision. In low light levels the on-off rod cells are more effective at forming an image because of the available wavelengths of light. As a general rule among animals, the better you see color, the worse you see at night. You can test this hypothesis by examining the retinal cells of animals you would predict to have good color vision vs. those you would predict to have poor.
There are some animals, bees and some bats, that see wavelengths of light that our eyes are not good enough to percieve.
There are a lot of crazy answers here!

Answer 4

most animals see in colour. This is for attracting mates, protection and giving warnings to predators such as poisonous. Dogs see in black and white

Answer 5

Not all animals see in black and white. Many birds actually possess cones in their eyes, which process the colors that are seen everyday. In fact, there are some species of birds that can see in more color detail than human since they have more than three types of cones, including an infrared form of cone, which allows them to hunt at night more efficiently.

With their compound eyes, butterflies and some other insects can actually process color patterns. Flowers use both coloration and scent to attract pollinators, and insects are attracted to flowers either by sight or smell for the consumption of nectar. Butterflies use visual cues to determine which flowers to feed from (and ultimately assist in the spread of pollen to other receptive plants for assisted reproduction).

Many animals (not just birds and some insects) have the capacity to see in color. The ability to see in color depends on the presence and capacity of cones in the eye, which allows how well an organism can translate the initial stimulus into a chemical/biological interpretation in its brain/nervous system. There are fish that can actually see twelve types of color. For a comparison of how impressive that is, humans can only see in three color types (red, green, blue).

Answer 6

Its not that animals see in black and white. Some actually observe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum than we do and the "Colors" they see aren't comparable to human co lours.
Just a thought since color is and internal analysis of a particular bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum is the color you perceive as red comparable t the red someone else sees or do you only think that cause its the only red you've seen.

Answer 7

Not all animals see in black and white. Color perception varies from animal to animal. Dogs see in black and white. Bees can perceive ultraviolet colors that look merely black to humans. Many predators can see colors much like humans can.

Answer 8

They don't all see only in B&W, but many of them see specific colours much more intensly than we do, so that flowers etc, that are of the correct colour for their food stuff will be brighter, many of them see UV reflected light as well.

Answer 9

some animales can see the whole color spectrum, others can see a narrower spectrum. colors are made for many reasones; attract mate, escape enemy by matching environment, attract smaller animals for food, and to represent the GOD wish to satisfy human beings.

Answer 10

canines can see shade, they merely see it otherwise to us people. My canines used to tear down each of the blue clothing from the washing line. All creatures see issues otherwise, a similar way that they placed across otherwise, and do issues otherwise. Us people, compared to some creatures, have low degrees of imaginitive and prescient and listening to, we cant see and pay interest to some issues that different animals can.