Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an animal or a plant [1] to avoid observation or detection by other animals. It may be part of a predation strategy or an antipredator adaptation . Methods include camouflage , nocturnality , subterranean lifestyle and mimicry .
Aggressive mimicry often involves the predator employing signals which draw its potential prey towards it, a strategy which allows predators to simply sit and wait for prey to come to them. The promise of food or sex are most commonly used as lures. However, this need not be the case; as long as the predator's true identity is concealed, it may ...
Predators need not locate their host directly: Kestrels, for instance, are able to detect the faeces and urine of their prey (which reflect ultraviolet), allowing them to identify areas where there are large numbers of voles, for example. This adaptation is essential in prey detection, as voles are quick to hide from such predators.
Leafy sea dragon avoids recognition by predators, with alga-like coloration, protuberances and behaviour. Underwater camouflage is the set of methods of achieving crypsis—avoidance of observation—that allows otherwise visible aquatic organisms to remain unnoticed by other organisms such as predators or prey.
The walking leaf insects from the Indo-Pacific region resemble tree leaves in appearance and posture.In biology, mimesis (from ancient Greek μίμησις mímēsis, "imitation") [1] is a form of crypsis where living creatures mimic the form, colour and posture of their surroundings to avoid being noticed from their surroundings by predators depending on sight. [2]
In Batesian mimicry, the mimic resembles the model, but does not have the attribute that makes it unprofitable to predators (e.g., unpalatability, or the ability to sting). In other words, a Batesian mimic is a sheep in wolf's clothing. Mimics are less likely to be found out (for example by predators) when in low proportion to their model.
A wide range of animals, e.g. lizards, birds, rodents, and sharks, behave as if dead as an anti-predator adaptation, as predators usually take only live prey. [ 15 ] In beetles, artificial selection experiments have shown that there is heritable variation for length of death-feigning.
It is often combined with other methods of crypsis including background colour matching and countershading; special cases are coincident disruptive coloration and the disruptive eye mask seen in some fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. It appears paradoxical as a way of not being seen, since disruption of outlines depends on high contrast, so the ...