Bright Colors:Eat Me at Your Own Risk 鮮艷的顏色意味著吃掉我風險自負

Have you ever wondered how animals protect themselves from being eaten byother animals？ Some animals hide from predators1 by blending in with plants，tree bark， and leaves around them. For example， Arctic foxes blend in with thewhite snow. We call this cryptic2 coloration3， or camouflage4.

你有沒有想過動物是如何保護自己不被其他動物吃掉的？一些動物通過與周圍的植物、樹皮和樹葉融為一體來躲避捕食者。例如，北極狐與白色積雪融為一體。我們稱之為隱蔽色或保護色。

Other animals are bright and colorful. These animals are often red， yellow， ororange， which makes them easy for predators to spot. That seems to make nosense， right？ Why would animals want to risk being eaten？ One reason for brightcolors is to show predators that they are dangerous to eat！

其他動物是鮮艷多彩的。這些動物通常是紅色、黃色或橙色的，這使捕食者很容易發現它們。這似乎沒有道理，對吧？為什么動物會要冒著被吃掉的風險？顏色鮮艷的一個原因是為了向捕食者表明，吃掉它們是很危險的！

If a bird eats a monarch butterfly， the toxic constituents5 will cause the birdto throw up. After the bad experience， the bird learns to avoid eating things thatlook like the monarch butterfly， including other orange insects. Just like birds，after we get sick from eating a certain food， we usually stay away from that foodfor a while， out of fear that it might make us sick again.

如果一只鳥吃了帝王蝶，有毒的成分會導致鳥嘔吐。在經歷了糟糕的經歷后，這只鳥學會了避免吃看起來像帝王蝶的東西，包括其他橙色昆蟲。就像鳥類一樣，在我們因吃某種食物而感到不舒服后，我們通常會遠離這種食物一段時間，因為擔心它可能會讓我們再次難受。

Not every animal that shows a warning color is toxic， though—someanimals have a warning color but are not toxic. They mimic6 the warningcolorations of other animals that are toxic. You may call that cheating！

然而，并不是每種呈現警戒色的動物都是有毒的———有些動物有警戒色，但沒有毒性。他們模仿其他有毒動物的警戒色。你可以稱之為欺騙！

If you look outside， you may recognize examples of aposematism7 allaround you， such as ladybugs， bees， and wasps. There are also examples inyour own life！ Warning road signs are often neon8 yellow or red， to make thedanger clear to drivers. What other examples can you think of？ Think deeplyabout the colors you see all around you and what they are telling you.

如果你看看外面，你可能會發現你周圍都是警戒色的例子，比如瓢蟲、蜜蜂和黃蜂。你自己的生活中也有這樣的例子！道路警告標志通常是黃色或紅色的霓虹燈，以使駕駛員清楚地看到危險。你還能想到其他什么例子？深入思考一下你周圍看到的顏色，以及它們在告訴你什么吧。

▏Notes

1. predator 捕食性動物

2. cryptic 隱藏的

3. coloration 自然色彩，自然花紋

4. camouflage 保護色

5. constituent 成分

6. mimic 模仿；模擬

7. aposematism 警戒態

8. neon 霓虹燈