Camouflage
Teacher's notes
Introduction
Camouflage
Types of Camouflage
Cryptic Coloration
Disruptive Coloration
Counter Shading
Disguises / mimicry
Teacher's notes
Education staff at Wellington Zoo are available to help with planning a study unit to suit your students' needs and can provide you with further resources on this topic
This unit contains resource material suitable for Living World Levels 3 - 5.
Level 3:2, 4:2
Investigate special features of animals and describe how these help them to survive.
Level 4:3
Investigate and describe patterns in the variability of a visible physical feature within a species
Level 5:2
Investigate and describe adaptations of animals in their environment
Skills
Record observations, present findings, discuss ideas, suggest possible explanations.
Introduction
Many animals have patterned or coloured skin coverings that help them to hide in their natural environment. This survival adaptation is called camouflage.
Camouflage - the means by which an animal is inconspicuous within its surroundings;
- both hunting (predator) and hunted (prey) animals use camouflage.
- predators can move close to their prey if they are well camouflaged.
- camouflaged prey animals can be difficult to detect by a predator.
Zoo animals may appear very conspicuous if the background colours and shapes in their enclosure are unlike those of their natural habitat. When studying animal camouflage it is important to consider how their coverings offer protection in the animals' natural environments.
Many mammals do not see in colour (some primates - apes, monkeys and humans are the main exception) and many hunt in dim light in the early morning or at dusk. These two factors must also be considered when studying the adaptive nature of camouflage.
Types of Camouflage
Cryptic Coloration (matching colours or patterns)
Many animals have fur, feather or scale coverings that match the plants, soil or rocks where they live:
- The tawny fur of lions helps them to hide in the dry, yellow-brown grasslands of the African savannah.
- Many desert animals have sandy brown coats that help them to blend into their background.
- Animals that live in rainforests may be green or brown to match the colours of foliage and tree trunks.
Examples at Wellington Zoo
- desert background - meerkat, camel, Gould's monitor
- dry grasslands - lion, kangaroo, wallaby
- swamp-fernlands - banded rail
- rainforests - tree gecko, Jackson's chameleon, kaka, capuchin monkey, yellow-crowned and red-crowned parakeet
- rocky mountains - tahr, scree skink
Disruptive coloration (spots, stripes, blotches)
Many animals cannot see in colour; they only see shades of black and white. This makes it hard for these animals to identify patterned animals against the mottled patterns and shadows of their environment.
- Prey animals may find it hard to identify the outline of a tiger as its stripes help to break up the shape of the animal when it moves through forest or tall grasslands.
- Many predators hunt in the dim light of dawn and dusk; at these times spots and stripes will assist camouflaged animals to meld into the long shadows of their surroundings.
- The stripes on a zebra's coat present a challenge to scientists. Some have attempted to explain them as an example of camouflage, but a herd of black and white zebra are very visible on the African grasslands. Some people have argued that the stripes help each individual animal to blend into the herd and render it difficult for a predator to single out one animal. Other scientists believe that the stripes are used by the zebras for recognition; each animal has a unique pattern, like a human finger print.
Examples at Wellington Zoo
- Sumatran tiger, cheetah, serval, giraffe, zebra, eastern blue-tongue lizard, eastern water dragon
Counter Shading (dark and light)
Light and shadow can make animals stand out from their background. A large number of animals have dark coloration of their upper body and pale shading below. This coloration pattern counteracts the way sunlight falls on solid objects, whereby light falling on the upper surface of an object makes it look lighter than the background and the bottom of the object is in shadow and appears darker than the background.
An animal that is countershaded becomes more evenly lit when sunlight falls on its back and so is harder to distinguish from its background.
Examples at Wellington Zoo
- blackbuck antelope, spider monkey, cotton-top tamarin, pelican, peahen, eastern grey kangaroo, parma wallaby
Disguises / mimicry
Some animals or parts of their bodies resemble other objects in their environment. This helps them to hide.
- A stick insect looks just like a tree twig when it is still and it will even sway slightly on its legs when there is a breeze, mimicking the movement of the twigs.
- The tawny frogmouth is an Australian bird that spends much of its time resting through the day. Its feathers are coloured like tree bark and when asleep it takes up a posture that mimics a dead branch.
- The swollen tail of the shingle-back lizard is similar in shape and size to the lizard's head. If a predator attacked the tail end of the animal then the lizard's chances of survival would be greater than if the vulnerable head was targeted.
Examples at Wellington Zoo
- tawny frogmouth, shingleback lizard
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