The coloraptor lives in the jungles far to the south. It navigates and hunts using its chroma-sensitive eyes - the brighter color something is the more it is drawn to it. Brave men venture into the wilds in their gray coats to battle the dangerous beast and they do not always return.
...in actuality it eats flowers. A chemical in its body is refined and manufactured into a paste that reacts to flashes of color, so gets smeared onto plates to make an image. The few that are caught and not rendered into "reptigraphs" are kept in captivity in concrete boxes and essentially starved. Like underfed tigers their behavior is more ferocious; their hide loses its shifting patterns and bright feathers. They are fearsome and miserable.
(Why yes, my campaigns have both dinosaurs in zoos and photography)
