Antipredator Adaptations: Crypsis And Warning Coloration
Many animals employ crypsis to help them fool their predators. Cryptic animals are ones that blend in with their backgrounds. The thought is “If I can’t be seen, then I can’t be eaten.” Here are four ways that animals can blend in.
Disruptive
Coloration
Animals, like the
zebra, use their coloration patterns to make it hard to see them. From far
away the zebra’s stripes make his outline blend in with the horizon. |
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Counter
shading
Counter shading is
seen mostly in aquatic animals. They are light on the bottom and dark on the
top. When a swimming penguin is viewed from the top-down it will blend in
with the darkness of the deep ocean and then when viewed from the bottom-up
it will blend in with the light near the surface of the ocean. |
Color Change
Some animals can even
change their coloring to try and fool predators. Chameleons are one such
animal that can adapt their color adapts to match their background. |
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Selection of appropriate background
Another group of
animals look like something commonly in their environment. A walking stick
for example looks like a regular stick and makes it extra hard to tell it
apart from a real branch. |
Another type of
antipredator adaptation that many animals employ is warning coloration. If they
can’t blend in then they warn predators that they are poisonous or bad to eat.
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Monarch
Butterflies are poisonous because they feed on milkweed. So they use
their bright colors and patterns to advertise that they are bad to eat. |
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Created by Christina
Roman
Last Modified