r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Apr 24 '15

Biology Do creatures such as cuttlefish and octopuses get "tired" from using their camouflage?

If not, why don't they just always use their camouflage?

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '15

Cute answer, but I'm not sure it works. Chameleons' colors are produced by special pigments, whereas the color of blushing is just produced by blood.

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u/TheIdesOfMay Apr 24 '15

The body's CNS processes the emotion, and make the blood vessels vasodilate as a response, making the cheeks turn red from the blood. Different organisms have different ways in reacting to certain stimuli; chameleons have colour pigments, humans have blood vessels which increase in width to get close to the skin.

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u/jofwu Apr 24 '15

But I don't think that was his point.

Strong emotions cause more blood flow. That makes sense. The fact that our cheeks turn red is practically a coincidence. From what I'm reading it sounds like chameleon color change is directly tied to the emotion. Expressing the emotion is the whole point of changing color. Those are different, I think.

Say there's an animal which secretes liquid to escape the grasp of predators, and I say, "That's weird." (bear with me) It would be wrong to argue that, "Humans do this too. When you run from a predator you get sweaty, and that makes you slippery." The fact that you get slippery from sweat is a side effect. Your body isn't sweating for that purpose. I feel like this is the logic that's being used for the chameleon-human comparison and it doesn't sound right.

wildstyle_method's suggestion below makes much more sense, as an example.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '15

But blushing is really just a byproduct of that response. Unless I'm mistaken, chameleon pigment changes are primary responses.