We will continue our blog on animal camouflage. Previously we talk about the basic method on how animal commonly using disguise. The following we will explain more details on some amazing animals.
Technique: Colour and movement
Reason: Hunting
In the lush, high-altitude forests of Kenya and Tanzania, the bright green skin of the jackson’s chameleon blends with the mosaic of thick waxy leaves. Their skin is mottled to break up the animal’s outline and has very rough scales to create a thorny, irregular texture. When they perch, their long tail is coiled into a tight circle to help the chameleon look more like a leaf, and they move with a swaying motion to mimic the effect of the breeze through the branches.
Technique: Disruptive color pattern
Reason: Defensive
This distant relative of the owl and cuckoo lives in Australia and New Guinea. It eats insects and small frogs by sitting still until food comes within range, and then pouncing. It feeds at night, so the camouflage is to protect it during the day. Perched motionless in the crook of a tree branch or on a dead log, the pattern of its feathers mimics the texture of tree bark.
Technique: Mimicry
Reason: Defensive
This Australian spider catches moths at night by luring them with their own sex pheromones, but during the day it is vulnerable to being eaten by birds. So it disguises itself as the least appetizing thing for a bird: their own droppings! The creamy-colored abdomen with brown stippled patches closely resembles the guano of a bird that feeds on insects.
Technique: Disruptive pattern
Reason: Hunting
Hiding 100kg of big cat in the dense forests of south America isn’t easy, but if you are an ambush predator, it’s vital that you succeed. Jaguars use a similar rosette pattern on their fur to the African leopard but the rosettes are larger, darker and have a small spot in the middle. The effect is similar to the dappled shade cast by the thick jungle foliage on the forest floor. This makes it very hard to trace the outline of the jaguar, until it moves. And by then, it’s too late.
Technique: Color and counter shading
Reason: Protection and hunting
Sand Geckos use the huge surface area on their finger pads to cling to the walls or roofs of the rock crevices in the desert. The mottled sandy color that covers all of their upper surface, including their eyelids, blends against the gritty sandstone rocks. When they are the right way up, hunting insects on the desert floor, their white belly appears to neutralize the shadow cast by their upper body.
Technique: Dazzle pattern
Reason: Confusing predators
The African savannah is a difficult place to hide, but the bright stripes of the zebra work in a different way. Instead of making the animal blend into its surroundings, they make it blend into the herd. When threatened, zebras huddle together and the stripes make it difficult to tell where one startsand another ends. Lions and other predators rely on splitting one target away from the herd. The visual clump created by the stripes confuses and acts as a survival technique for the zebra.
Technique: Seasonal Color
Reason: Defensive
During the short Alaskan spring and summer, the snowshoe hare has fur that is standard "rabbit brown" to blend against the leaves and heather. But this hare doesn't hibernate and a brown animal wouldn't last long on a carpet of snow, with lynx and great horned owls patrolling. So it moults to a winter coat, which is pure white except for a black tip on each ear.
Technique: Color and pattern
Reason: Protecting its eggs
Birds normally defend themselves against predators by flying away, but the Egyptian night jar lives in the desert, where there are no trees for roosting. It also eats moths, which means it is active by night. In the day it rests on the sandy ground, but its mottled brown, rather scruffy-looking plumage is almost impossible to spot. The night jar just looks like a stone or a piece of dried wood. Egyptian night jars don’t even build nests, hiding their eggs ; beneath their own camouflage.
Technique: Stripes and counter shading
Reason: Defensive
Mackerel swim in huge schools. Seen from above, the distinctive striped pattern resembles the rippling pattern of shadow seen shallow seas. At close range the effect may be similar to the zebra’s stripes and make it hard for predators to lock on to any single fish. The counter-shaded belly common to most fish, making them harder to spot from below against the lighter surface.
Technique: Color changing
Reason: Signalling, hunting and protection
Cuttlefish have the most advanced color changing system of any animal. Not only can they change their color in less than a second, but they can also move from static camouflage patterns to rapidly pulsing displays to hypnotize prey or communicate with other cuttlefish. Their skin can also change the polarization of the light reflecting off it, important because many marine animals are sensitive to the polarization angle of light.
Technique: Color changing and behavioral mimicry
Reason: Protection and hunting
The mimic octopus is an active predator and can’t afford to spend long periods sitting on the seabed pretending to be a rock. But it does have lots of predators outs own, so uses its camouflage abilities to imitate more than 15 other animal species. As well as changing the color and patterning of its skin, it can also radically alter its texture from smooth to spiny and contort its arms and body to change shape.
Technique: Color and spines
Reason: Ambush
The stone fish catches small fish and shrimp by lying still on the seabed and resembling a stone. When food swims close, it pounces and then goes back to being a stone. To defend it self from its own predators, the stone fish has 13 poisonous spines. Whereas most poisonous animals are brightly colored as a warning, the stone fish camouflage means that it’s often trodden on by accident, killing a human in two hours.
Jungle Illusionists
An Impressive game of hide and seek takes place among the trees. There are the animals who lives deep in the jungle and how they did camouflage.Jackson’s chameleon
Technique: Colour and movement
Reason: Hunting
In the lush, high-altitude forests of Kenya and Tanzania, the bright green skin of the jackson’s chameleon blends with the mosaic of thick waxy leaves. Their skin is mottled to break up the animal’s outline and has very rough scales to create a thorny, irregular texture. When they perch, their long tail is coiled into a tight circle to help the chameleon look more like a leaf, and they move with a swaying motion to mimic the effect of the breeze through the branches.
Tawny Frog mouth
Reason: Defensive
This distant relative of the owl and cuckoo lives in Australia and New Guinea. It eats insects and small frogs by sitting still until food comes within range, and then pouncing. It feeds at night, so the camouflage is to protect it during the day. Perched motionless in the crook of a tree branch or on a dead log, the pattern of its feathers mimics the texture of tree bark.
Bird Dropping Spider
Reason: Defensive
This Australian spider catches moths at night by luring them with their own sex pheromones, but during the day it is vulnerable to being eaten by birds. So it disguises itself as the least appetizing thing for a bird: their own droppings! The creamy-colored abdomen with brown stippled patches closely resembles the guano of a bird that feeds on insects.
Jaguar
Technique: Disruptive pattern
Reason: Hunting
Hiding 100kg of big cat in the dense forests of south America isn’t easy, but if you are an ambush predator, it’s vital that you succeed. Jaguars use a similar rosette pattern on their fur to the African leopard but the rosettes are larger, darker and have a small spot in the middle. The effect is similar to the dappled shade cast by the thick jungle foliage on the forest floor. This makes it very hard to trace the outline of the jaguar, until it moves. And by then, it’s too late.
Israeli Sand Gecko
Technique: Color and counter shading
Reason: Protection and hunting
Sand Geckos use the huge surface area on their finger pads to cling to the walls or roofs of the rock crevices in the desert. The mottled sandy color that covers all of their upper surface, including their eyelids, blends against the gritty sandstone rocks. When they are the right way up, hunting insects on the desert floor, their white belly appears to neutralize the shadow cast by their upper body.
Zebra
Technique: Dazzle pattern
Reason: Confusing predators
The African savannah is a difficult place to hide, but the bright stripes of the zebra work in a different way. Instead of making the animal blend into its surroundings, they make it blend into the herd. When threatened, zebras huddle together and the stripes make it difficult to tell where one startsand another ends. Lions and other predators rely on splitting one target away from the herd. The visual clump created by the stripes confuses and acts as a survival technique for the zebra.
Snowshoe hare
Technique: Seasonal Color
Reason: Defensive
During the short Alaskan spring and summer, the snowshoe hare has fur that is standard "rabbit brown" to blend against the leaves and heather. But this hare doesn't hibernate and a brown animal wouldn't last long on a carpet of snow, with lynx and great horned owls patrolling. So it moults to a winter coat, which is pure white except for a black tip on each ear.
Egyptian night jar
Technique: Color and pattern
Reason: Protecting its eggs
Birds normally defend themselves against predators by flying away, but the Egyptian night jar lives in the desert, where there are no trees for roosting. It also eats moths, which means it is active by night. In the day it rests on the sandy ground, but its mottled brown, rather scruffy-looking plumage is almost impossible to spot. The night jar just looks like a stone or a piece of dried wood. Egyptian night jars don’t even build nests, hiding their eggs ; beneath their own camouflage.
Do you know - Chameleon changes
The word ‘chameleon’ is a by-word for invisibility and camouflage, but most chameleons don’t change color to match their surroundings. Their default color is already an excellent camouflage and color changes are used to signal their mood to other chameleons.
Invisible Mysteries of the Deep
Below the surface of the water lurk a talented band of beasts.Mackerel
Technique: Stripes and counter shading
Reason: Defensive
Mackerel swim in huge schools. Seen from above, the distinctive striped pattern resembles the rippling pattern of shadow seen shallow seas. At close range the effect may be similar to the zebra’s stripes and make it hard for predators to lock on to any single fish. The counter-shaded belly common to most fish, making them harder to spot from below against the lighter surface.
Cuttlefish
Technique: Color changing
Reason: Signalling, hunting and protection
Cuttlefish have the most advanced color changing system of any animal. Not only can they change their color in less than a second, but they can also move from static camouflage patterns to rapidly pulsing displays to hypnotize prey or communicate with other cuttlefish. Their skin can also change the polarization of the light reflecting off it, important because many marine animals are sensitive to the polarization angle of light.
Indonesian mimic octopus
Technique: Color changing and behavioral mimicry
Reason: Protection and hunting
The mimic octopus is an active predator and can’t afford to spend long periods sitting on the seabed pretending to be a rock. But it does have lots of predators outs own, so uses its camouflage abilities to imitate more than 15 other animal species. As well as changing the color and patterning of its skin, it can also radically alter its texture from smooth to spiny and contort its arms and body to change shape.
Stone fish
Technique: Color and spines
Reason: Ambush
The stone fish catches small fish and shrimp by lying still on the seabed and resembling a stone. When food swims close, it pounces and then goes back to being a stone. To defend it self from its own predators, the stone fish has 13 poisonous spines. Whereas most poisonous animals are brightly colored as a warning, the stone fish camouflage means that it’s often trodden on by accident, killing a human in two hours.
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