--- title: Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare blue animals, white albinos and black panthers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare blue animals, white albinos and black panthers», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Animal colours come in two kinds: pigments, which are coloured stuff in the body like --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare b… # Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare blue animals, white albinos and black panthers Lesson 367 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/0/) — Animal colours come in two kinds: pigments, which are coloured stuff in the body like paint, and structures, tiny shapes that bend and scatter light like a soap bubble. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/2/) — A jay's feather is blue because of shape: crush it and the blue is gone, leaving grey-brown. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/3/) — When the gene for a pigment changes, you get surprises: a white rabbit with pink eyes, a white tiger with dark stripes, a black leopard or a bright blue lobster. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/4/) — Colour is also a message: it can hide an animal in dark forest, or shout «I taste horrible» like a ladybird's red and black. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/5/) — Flamingo chicks hatch grey and white and turn pink only after years of eating; both parents feed them a red milk made in their throats and turn paler while they do it. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/6/) — Zoos add pink colouring to flamingos' food, or the birds slowly fade. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/7/) — Wild salmon get their pink from the same kind of pigment, eaten in tiny shrimps, and farmed salmon are fed it so the meat looks the colour people expect; without it they would be pale grey. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/9/) — The blue morpho butterfly's wing scales have tiny ridges that reflect blue light, and its brown underside with eye spots makes it seem to vanish when it closes its wings. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/10/) — Most lobsters are dark greenish brown, and a blue one is often said to be about 1 in 2 million; all lobsters turn red when cooked because heat frees the red pigment. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/11/) — An albino animal cannot make melanin, the dark pigment of skin, hair and eyes, so its eyes look pink or red from the blood vessels showing through. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/12/) — Albino animals often see poorly, burn easily in sun and are easier for predators to spot. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/13/) — White tigers and white lions are not albino: a gene makes their fur pale, but they still have dark stripes or eyes, and breeding close relatives together again and again in zoos gave many white tigers health problems. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/14/) — A black panther is not a separate kind of animal but a leopard (in Africa and Asia) or a jaguar (in Central and South America) with extra dark pigment, and its spots still show in bright sunlight or on night camera traps. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/15/) — Bagheera in The Jungle Book is a black leopard. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/16/) — On the Malay peninsula in South-East Asia almost all leopards are reported to be black, because a black coat is good camouflage in dark, damp forest. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/17/) — A ladybird's spots tell you its kind, not its age: the seven-spot ladybird always has seven, and there are 2-spot, 10-spot and 22-spot kinds. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/18/) — A ladybird's red and black are a warning: it tastes bitter and oozes yellow liquid from its knees when grabbed. - ← previous: [Odd-looking animals: shoebills, star-nosed moles, saigas, pangolins and hagfish](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/366-odd-looking-animals-shoebills-star-nosed-moles-saigas-pangolins-and-hagfish/) - next →: [Big wild animals in cities: wild boar, deer, coyotes, monkeys and leopards](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/368-big-wild-animals-in-cities-wild-boar-deer-coyotes-monkeys-and-leopards/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)