“I can name the 4 types of camouflage animals and insects use.” “I can describe the characteristics of each type of animal camouflage.” “I can give examples of each type of camouflage.”

1. Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration.

1. Concealing Coloration: Many animals in the Arctic have white coloring to blend in with the snow that surrounds them.

1. Concealing Coloration: Green is a common concealing color for a variety of animals and insects.

How is this an example of Concealing Coloration?

2. Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. Example: An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators.

Is the animal or insect the shape AND color of something in its typical habitat? If the animal is ONLY the color of its surroundings then it is probably using Concealing Coloration. This can be confused with Concealing Coloration because the animal does blend in with its background but, Ask yourself the following:

If it actually looks like the object on which it stays, then it is using Disguise to fool its predators or prey.

Tawny frogmouths blend in with tree bark and stumps while sleeping during the day. They stay perfectly still while resting and when disturbed they raise their head and stiffen their body, simulating a branch.

3. Disruptive Coloration: An animal that takes advantage of disruptive coloration uses spots, stripes, or other patterns to "break up" its outline so it doesn't stick out against the background. Animals like zebras, leopards, tigers and birds use this type of camouflage.

Stripes and spots can be disruptive coloration. Disruptive coloration helps break up an animal's outline. This makes it difficult for other animals to see it. You'd think that the black and white stripes of the zebra would make it easy for predators to see it! The main predator of the zebra is the lion. Lions don't like to hunt in the heat of the day, they prefer sleeping in the shade. They hunt as it gets dark. As the sun goes down, the black and white stripes of the zebra "break up" its outline against the tall grass. But the zebra's stripes have another purpose.

3. Disruptive Coloration: Zebras live in herds. When the lion attacks, the zebras start running in all directions. With all those stripes mixing together, its easy for the lion to lose the zebra it picked out of the herd.

3a. Disruptive Coloration: Counter Shading Another type of disruptive coloration is called counter shading. Animals with counter shading have different colors on their backs and stomachs.

The darker top fur makes it harder for predators to see the squirrel when it is on the ground. When it is perched on a tree branch, the white fur on its belly helps it to blend into the lighter sky above.

3a. Disruptive Coloration: Counter Shading Penguins also have counter shading. Penguins spend a lot of time in the water. The dark feathers on their backs help camouflage them from predators that are swimming above them. Their white stomach feathers hide them from predators swimming below them.

4. Mimicry: There are many "impostors" in the animal world that use mimicry to fool predators. They pretend to be what they are not. These animals take on the characteristics of, or mimic something it’s not.

4a. Eye Spot Mimicry: Some butterflies and moths have large eyespots. These eyespots trick birds into thinking the butterfly or moth is much larger than it really is!

4b. Batesian Mimicry: The poisonous coral snake and the harmless king snake look a lot alike. Predators will avoid the king snake because they think it is poisonous. This type of mimicry is called Batesian mimicry. In Batesian mimicry a harmless species mimics a toxic or dangerous species.

4b. Batesian Mimicry: Unless you know a lot about animals it is very difficult to tell if an animal is using this type of defense. You would have to know about both the bad-tasting or poisonous creature and compare the "copy cat" to it to see how similar they look.

4c. Aggressive Mimicry: Some mimics look like something else, not to avoid predators, but to catch prey. Aggressive mimics resemble their background or signal that they are something else to help them catch their prey.

4c. Aggressive Mimicry: The Angler fish lures its prey to where it can strike. It has a long antenna-like extension on its head that it wiggles. Other fish and crustaceans think its a little fish and come in close to eat it. When they do, the anglerfish eats them!

Now it’s time for a camouflage quiz! Directions 1.Take out a piece of paper 2.Number your paper from 1 – 20 3.Write down the type of camouflage being shown in each example

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Self-Check

Aggressive mimicry: Preying mantis blends in with its environment in order to catch unsuspecting prey. Or it could be… Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators. 1

Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration. 2

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators. 3

Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration. 4

Disruptive Coloration: An animal that takes advantage of disruptive coloration uses spots, stripes, or other patterns to "break up" its outline so it doesn't stick out against the background. 5

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators. 6

Batesian Mimicry: There are many "impostors" in the animal world that use mimicry to fool predators. They pretend to be what they are not. These animals take on the characteristics of, or mimic. 7 Would you trust your ability to tell them apart? Red touching black is a friend of Jack, Red touching yellow can kill a fellow

Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration. 8

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators, like this leaf tailed gecko 9

Aggressive Mimicry: Some mimics look like something else, not to avoid predators, but to catch prey. Aggressive mimics resemble their background or signal that they are something else to help them catch their prey. 9

Disruptive Coloration: An animal that takes advantage of disruptive coloration uses spots, stripes, or other patterns to "break up" its outline so it doesn't stick out against the background. 10

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators. Is that sea weed? No it’s a leafy sea dragon! 11

Disruptive Coloration: An animal that takes advantage of disruptive coloration uses spots, stripes, or other patterns to "break up" its outline so it doesn't stick out against the background. 12

Aggressive Mimicry: There are many "impostors" in the animal world that use mimicry to fool predators. They pretend to be what they are not in order to catch prey. These animals take on the characteristics of, or mimic. Look closely… that “ant” has 8 legs! 13

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators. 14

Disguise: Animals use disguise to blend in with their surroundings. An insect that looks like a branch or leaf is using a "costume" to hide from predators., like this Leaf Bug 15

Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration. 16

Concealing Coloration - Animals that use coloration to hide themselves against a background of the same color are using Concealing Coloration. 17

Disruptive Coloration: An animal that takes advantage of disruptive coloration uses spots, stripes, or other patterns to "break up" its outline so it doesn't stick out against the background. 18

Eye Spot Mimicry: There are many "impostors" in the animal world that use mimicry to fool predators. They pretend to be what they are not. These animals take on the characteristics of, or mimic. Eye spots make predators think this butterfly is a much larger animal 19

Disruptive Coloration: Counter Shading Another type of disruptive coloration is called counter shading. Animals with counter shading have different colors on their backs and stomachs. 20