Aspundir: Colored By Their Lunch- Pink Animals

The plant and animal kingdoms abound with bright colors, from the lush green of photosynthesizing plants to the bold black and orange stripes of tigers. Color plays a multitude of roles in the natural world, used to entice, to camouflage, or to warn other creatures. Colors signal harvest time, breeding conditions, and the change of seasons, from the first greens of spring to the brilliant reds and browns of the fall. Plants, however, can produce a range of pigments, so many animals are colored by what they eat. Flamingos range in color from light pink, from eating crustaceans such as shrimp and prawns, to bright red, from eating spirulina and other types of algae. The color comes from carotene, the same substance that colors yams and cantaloupe. Pink pigs (and people) display beauty that’s only skin deep but when pink appears as an animal’s prime pigment the results can be strikingly beautiful… they don’t call it “shocking pink” for nothing! This proud posse of puce poseurs provides proof positive pink can be a perfectly pleasing pigment. Some of the most striking cases of pink colored animalsare collected below.