• Question: Why can't some animals be certain colours??? (eg. a purple and green zebra):)

    Asked by oliviaaa to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 15 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Darwin (lovely man) once referred to colour as being ‘the most fleeting of characters’ meaning it is the trait that animals can change over time the easiest – many animals such as the artic fox can even change their colours in their own lifetime!

      As to why animals aren’t more amazing/splendid colours like green or purple – there are two reasons;

      1. Animals that are brightly coloured are very conspicuous meaning they are easy to spot and hunt! The few animals that are very brightly coloures (peacocks for example) do so for mating purposes and it is a very fine balance between looking nice and being eaten!

      2. Animals over generations are unlikely to invest the energy into developing costly traits that have no real advantage!

      If by freak accident we got a mutation that gave us a pink zebra, it would be unlikely to have an advantage under natural selection and therefore not pass on its genes!

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