Challenge youth to think about how using camouflage can help an animal survive in its environment. Disguise is when an animal has coloration designed so it looks like another non-food object in their environment.
For example, walking sticks look like a stick when sitting still. To help youth understand how disguise camouflage works, help them collect a variety of natural materials: leaves, grass, sticks, sand and a pinecone for each youth. Challenge the youth to look around the space and think about how they can use the natural materials to disguise their pinecone.
Provide glue and time for youth to disguise their pinecone. Then, have one student take their disguised pinecone outside and place it in plain sight. Once the pinecone is placed, have the rest of the group go outdoors and try to find the pinecone.
Repeat until all the disguised pine cones have been found. You can modify this activity by giving the group a limited amount of time to find each pinecone. Those that are not found survived. Ask youth if the survivors had anything in common. What do they think helped some pinecones survive better?
Mimicry is coloration in a harmless animal that is similar to another animal that is dangerous, bad tasting or poisonous. The viceroy butterfly looks similar to the monarch butterfly , which tastes bad and is poisonous to many predators. The owl butterfly has large spots that look like an owls eye. This type of camouflage is called warning coloration or aposematism.
Species that demonstrate warning coloration include the larva and adult stages of the monarch butterfly. The monarch caterpillar is brightly striped with yellow, black, and white. The monarch butterfly is patterned with orange, black, and white. Monarchs eat milkweed , which is a poison to many birds. Monarchs retain the poison in their bodies. The milkweed toxin is not deadly, but the bird will vomit.
The bright coloring warns predator birds that an upset stomach is probably not worth a monarch meal. Another animal that uses aposematism is the deadly coral snake, whose brightly colored rings alert other species to its toxic venom.
The harmless scarlet king snake has the same black, yellow, and red striped pattern as the coral snake. The scarlet king snake is camouflaged as a coral snake. Sharks use countershading.
When seen from above, they blend in with the darker ocean water below. This makes it difficult for fishermen—and swimmers—to see them. When seen from below, they blend in with lighter surface water.
Countershading also helps because it changes the way shadows are created. In countershading, however, the animal is darker where the sun would normally illuminate it, and lighter where it would normally be in shadow. Creating Camouflage Animal species are able to camouflage themselves through two primary mechanism s: pigment s and physical structures. Some species have natural, microscopic pigments, known as biochrome s, which absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others.
Species with biochromes actually appear to change colors. Many species of octopus have a variety of biochromes that allow them to change the color, pattern, and opacity of their skin.
Other species have microscopic physical structures that act like prism s, reflecting and scattering light to produce a color that is different from their skin. The polar bear, for instance, has black skin. Its translucent fur reflects the sunlight and snow of its habitat, making the bear appear white. Camouflage can change with the environment.
Many animals, such as the arctic fox, change their camouflage with the seasons. Octopuses camouflage themselves in response to a threat. Chameleon s change colors in order to communicate.
When a chameleon is threatened, it does not change color to blend in to its surroundings. It changes color to warn other chameleons that there is danger nearby. Some forms of camouflage are not based on coloration. Some species attach or attract natural materials to their bodies in order to hide from prey and predators. Many varieties of desert spiders, for instance, live in burrow s in the sandy ground.
They attach sand to the upper part of their bodies in order to blend in with their habitat. The California ground squirrel, for instance, chews up and spits out rattlesnake skin, then applies the paste to its tail.
The ground squirrel smells somewhat like its main predator. The rattlesnake, which senses by smell and body heat, is confused and hesitant about attacking another venomous snake. Ghillie Suits Ghillie suits are a type of camouflage used by the military and hunters to blend in to thick vegetation.
In addition to patterns of contrasting green or khaki, ghillie suits feature elements of foliage from the area: twigs, leaves, and branches. In Australia, ghillie suits are nicknamed "yowies," for their resemblance to the Yowie, a mythical creature similar to Bigfoot. Khaki Camouflage Militaries did not use camouflage until the 17th and 18th centuries. Before then, military uniforms were brightly colored, in order to intimidate the enemy.
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Klappenbach, Laura. How Animals Adapt or Mutate for Survival. What Is Coevolution? Definition and Examples.
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