Don’t wear red around bulls or they’ll charge! And a one- ton charging animal is a scary sight!

Well, turns out, bulls don’t really care about colour. Bulls are colour blind, so they can’t distinguish between colours on the red-green spectrum.

Then what causes them to react so aggressively?

Historically, bullfighting finds its roots in Spain. The controversial sport has captivated audiences for many centuries. While some consider it an important tradition, others regard it as pure animal cruelty.

In 2007, the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters tested the importance of colours in bullfighting. They put three dummies coloured red, blue and white in a bull’s enclosure. The bull charged mildly at all three, irrespective of colour. They then placed three people in the ring; one person was dressed in red, the other two people weren’t. When these two started to move around, the bull charged after them leaving the person in red alone.

This experiment proved that bulls are attracted by movement and not colour.

And this makes us wonder, if a bull can’t see red, then why do matadors use red cloths? The gruesome sport of bullfighting involves a fair amount of blood, and the muleta is traditionally red coloured to mask the animal’s blood splatters. Facts can be sadder than fiction.

So if you find yourself wearing red in front of an angry bull, you needn’t be scared. Or maybe get a little scared, it’s an angry bull after all!