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Posted by on Oct 15, 2015 in TellMeWhy |

Do Bulls Attack When They See Red?

Do Bulls Attack When They See Red?

Do Bulls Attack When They See Red? No. The color red doesn’t provoke a bull into charging. Bullfighters always wave a red cape in front of a bull during a bullfight. It isn’t the color of the cloth that make’s the bull charge, though.

It is the waving of the cape and the taunting behavior of the bullfighter that excites the bull and makes it attack.

In fact, the bull is color-blind! He cannot tell one color from another; everything the bull sees appears black or white or shades of gray. The colorful cape of the torero, or bullfighter, is traditionally red simply to give color to the spectacle.

So, if a bull can’t see red, why is the muleta red? The small cape comes out in the last stage of the bullfight, when the bull meets its end, and its color helps mask one of the more gruesome aspects of a bull fight: splatters of the animal’s blood.

Content for this question contributed by Wayne Lempke, resident of Marinette, Marinette County, Wisconsin, USA