He got copper dust on his skin and it combined with an acid (sweat) to turn it green. What if a lion was to roll in copper rich dust, then get in an acidic pool or wet by acidic rain?

And you are correct, sometimes things sound very strange. Sometimes we think there is no plausible explanation. They remain a mystery for years until someone researches the topic or gives a credible explanation. When that happens, these impossible stories become highly probable. And we even find answers. When I read this, it reminded me of the time I printed a photo of the green lion. I was thinking to myself, man, I have a lot of color correction and tint correction to perform on this otherwise great photograph. When I showed the proof to a couple of friends, without me saying a word, they would respond, “Great lion photo but why is it green”. When I read your article, I was immediately reminded of that photo.

As for other posters here at Cryptomundo. I think people mean well. Sometimes, when posting, we can not hear the reflection in their voice when they write things. Corrick is an alright person in my book. He adds a lot to posts and plainly speaks his mind. In other words, he is a good egg. It’s just from his plain speaking, he sometimes seems antagonistic but in reality, that is not the case. He does not mean to be hostile. It is not intentional at all. It just seems passive aggressive.

When I first read a couple of his posts, I was thinking the same thing you were thinking. I was thinking, corrick is a little abrasive. But over time, I realized that this is just his writing style. He gets right to the point of what he wants to say, not thinking about directing it at anyone in particular, just getting to different facts. I almost took something he wrote personally, but after reading some of his responses, I figured out it was not directed at me in the first place but to someone else or nobody at all.

I can tell by his additional responses he was truly unaware of and surprised that his comments were upsetting to you. I would not take it personally or read too much into it. And if corrick did not think your article was worthy of a response, he would not have given them any of his time. Bottom line, it was a good article and I for one, am glad you brought it up.

Corrick–Thanks for the comment and I hope I did not overstep my bounds in playing mediator. I know you are perfectly capable of speaking for yourself.

He is THE most interesting man in Cryptozoology…

“As I started researching this a bit more, I was astounded to discover that frogs, birds, and others in the tetrapod, or four-legged, world can’t make green pigment, either! Or blue, for that matter. It turns out that all color variation that we see in tetrapod animals is the result of different combinations of patterns of deposition and refraction of the same two types of pigments: black and yellow-red. A chameleon’s color changes because of rapid shape changes in refractory cells in its skin, not by rapid production or release of an actual pigment. Frogs are green because of the pattern of refraction of blue light by special cells in their skin, which blends with their yellow pigment.

The colors of bird feathers are also generated by light refraction but by a different mechanism. The surface of feathers has microscopic ridges that form ordered tracks, much like the surface of a CD. The spacing of the ridges and the size and orientation of the pigment granules they contain determine the feathers’ brilliant greens and blues (see links in reference 2). Tiny air pockets in feathers can add to color variation in birds.”

So the green mammals that do exist are no less (or more) green than the green amphibians and green birds. There may not be as many of them, but those that do exist warrant their green status just as much as the next green frog or green finch, for instance, that you encounter. So please, no more “there are no green mammals” – green is very much in the eye of the beholder, even if it isn’t in the skin of the beheld.

As for your remark re blue tigers: the son of Harry Caldwell, who wrote about his two separate sightings of blue tigers in his book Blue Tiger (1925), wrote in a book of his own of how he sometimes saw clumps of blue fur along the trails left by this remarkable big cats when he was accompanying his father tracking them. I would love to know whether any such samples were ever collected and, if so, where they are now. Genetically, the occurrence of a blue tiger would be nothing difficult to explain – pelts of blue lynxes and blue bobcats already exist, and as many mutant colours in cats are genetically homologous between species, it is therefore likely that the same mutant allele combination (‘blue dilution’) responsible for this shade in domestic cats as well as in the afore-mentioned lynxes and bobcats would also yield a blue tiger, with a polygenic effect creating its black stripes.

The green ringtail possum from Australia has a greenish tint. But in reality the fur is olive grey, and grizzled with silver, yellow and black hairs, which only make it appear green just like the Green bush squirrel from Cameroon. And the upper part of the face of vervet monkeys can appear green, but is caused by the banding together of individual hairs with black and yellow strands.

Under a microscope, naturally green or blue mammal fur has never been found, ever. As an optical illusion to the human eye? Certainly. Caused by external elements such as alga? Of course. But naturally ocuring? Never.

All I’m saying is 2012 science says there are no truly green leopards, lions or blue tigers. That other factors are involved that might make them appear green or blue to the human eye I have no dispute.