Warning Sign Our next colorful animal is a fish that also lives in the ocean. It’s a mandarinfish. It has many colors. Its body is blue or green. It’s covered in wavy orange lines. Its tail is red with blue edges. Its colors are not just beautiful.


T ey are warning colors. T ey tell predators that this fish tastes bad. In fact, the mandarinfish makes a poison that covers its skin. So it could be a predator’s last meal. When a predator swims by, it sees


the fish’s bright colors. It knows to stay away. It looks for other prey.


Colorful Mystery Scientists know how these fish, squid, birds, and spiders use color. Yet they don’t know how one large animal uses its bright colors. It’s a mandrill. A male mandrill’s face looks like


a painted mask. His nose and lips are bright red. Long, blue ridges run down the sides of his nose. His eyebrows are white. He has a golden beard. Oſt en the most powerful male in a group is the most colorful. No one knows why. T e mandrill’s colors are a mystery.


Color Matters Scientists have wondered how colors help mandrills. T ey have a few ideas. Maybe a colorful face is easier to


This mandarinfi sh’s colors are a warning to predators.


see in a forest. Maybe the leader’s face is easier to recognize. Or maybe the most colorful


mandrill is the toughest. Its color may warn all other animals to stay away. For now, mandrill


color is still a mystery. Yet for other animals, color isn’t a mystery. Animals use their colors to survive.


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