Bright Colors:Eat Me at Your Own Risk 鲜艳的颜色意味着吃掉我风险自负

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.

你有没有想过动物是如何保护自己不被其他动物吃掉的？一些动物通过与周围的植物、树皮和树叶融为一体来躲避捕食者。例如，北极狐与白色积雪融为一体。我们称之为隐蔽色或保护色。

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！

其他动物是鲜艳多彩的。这些动物通常是红色、黄色或橙色的，这使捕食者很容易发现它们。这似乎没有道理，对吧？为什么动物会要冒着被吃掉的风险？颜色鲜艳的一个原因是为了向捕食者表明，吃掉它们是很危险的！

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.

如果一只鸟吃了帝王蝶，有毒的成分会导致鸟呕吐。在经历了糟糕的经历后，这只鸟学会了避免吃看起来像帝王蝶的东西，包括其他橙色昆虫。就像鸟类一样，在我们因吃某种食物而感到不舒服后，我们通常会远离这种食物一段时间，因为担心它可能会让我们再次难受。

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，并不是每种呈现警戒色的动物都是有毒的———有些动物有警戒色，但没有毒性。他们模仿其他有毒动物的警戒色。你可以称之为欺骗！

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，你可能会发现你周围都是警戒色的例子，比如瓢虫、蜜蜂和黄蜂。你自己的生活中也有这样的例子！道路警告标志通常是黄色或红色的霓虹灯，以使驾驶员清楚地看到危险。你还能想到其他什么例子？深入思考一下你周围看到的颜色，以及它们在告诉你什么吧。

▏Notes

1. predator 捕食性动物

2. cryptic 隐藏的

3. coloration 自然色彩，自然花纹

4. camouflage 保护色

5. constituent 成分

6. mimic 模仿；模拟

7. aposematism 警戒态

8. neon 霓虹灯