Chromatic Owl

Nature-photography asset depicting an owl in colours unavailable to owls.

Chromatic Owl is classified within Synthetic Fauna, a sector representing 6.2% of the index. Animals of biologically unsupported colouration, size or limb count, generally presented as photographs from a nature reserve that does not exist.

The Chromatic Owl anchors the Synthetic Fauna sector. The asset is an owl of seventeen colours, presented as a photograph from a nature reserve in a country selected at random, with a caption inviting the viewer to share if they find it beautiful. They do. The asset benefits from an audience that would like nature to be more colourful than it is, and from an owl that is.

• Ornithologists.
• Colour saturation limits in current models.
• Competition from the rainbow peacock, which has more feathers.

• Spring.
• New colours.
• A television nature documentary inadvertently using the image.

The owl was among the first synthetic images to be shared primarily by people who believed it, creating the Synthetic Fauna sector and a small crisis in birdwatching.

OWL advanced 14.6% after acquiring an eighteenth colour. The Committee has been assured the owl is not real and is monitoring the situation.

— SLOP500 INDEX COMMITTEE