Camouflage and Mimicry

Hi my name is Sierra Cunningham. I am a student at Olathe North, I am a junior and I am 16 years old. I work at an animal hospital because I love animals and it gives me a great chance to work with them. I also want to be a veterinarian and go to K State to major in animal sciences. I am also athletic and I like running, playing soccer, and exercising.
Many Animals use Camouflage and Mimicry as a way to protect themselves from larger predators and a way to hide themselves from prey making it easier for them to capture it. When an animal uses Camouflage they blend in to their environment by making the color of their body match the color of the object or plant they sit still on. The object most times just looks like a leaf, twig, a rock, when really it has an animal on it.
During Mimicry, animals use their markings on their bodies to look like another animal to protect themselves from predators that might want to eat them and other animals. There are three types of mimicry used by both predator and prey: Batesian mimicry, Muellerian mimicry, and Self-mimicry. The definition of Mimicry just means the similarities between animal species.
The first type of Mimicry is Batesian mimicry which is when to two or more species look alike in appearance, but only one of then has spines or stingers when its obvious look alike does not have these same traits. The second species has no defense other than looking like the other species and has protection from certain predators by its resemblance to the other species, which the predator fears. Examples of Batesian mimicry are the many species of butterflies that mimic other butterflies. Another butterfly mimic is the Papilio. Each female butterfly can produce one or more different female forms which can mimic five other species of the other foul-tasting butterflies. Other examples are the coral, milk, and king snakes of the New World. Both snakes are marked with yellow, red, and black bands causing possible predators to avoid them. The deadly coral snake has bands of red, yellow, and black, while the other harmless species have the pattern of red, black, yellow.
The second type of Mimicry is Muellerian mimicry which is a form of mimicry that means two disagreeing species are mimics of each other with easily seen warning colors. Thus all mimics share the benefits of the colors since the predator will recognize the coloration of an unpleasant group after a few bad experiences. Since several species have the same appearance to the predator, the loss of life will be spread out over all the species, which lessens the impact on each individual species.
The third type of Mimicry is Self-mimicry which is a misleading term for animals that have one body part that mimics another to raise their survival rate during an attack or helps predators appear harmless. For example the butterfly has eye-spots which are large dark markings that when flashed may startle a predator for a second and allow the prey some extra seconds to escape. Eye-spots can also help prey escape predators by giving predators a fake target. It seems less often predators put self-mimicry to use to aid in catching prey by looking less threatening or fooling the prey before the attack. For example, several turtle species have tongue extensions that are used as a lure to attract prey to a position where they become easy to catch. One of the most interesting examples of self-mimicry is two-headed snake which has a tail that resembles a head and a head that resembles a tail. The snake even moves its tail in the way most snakes move their heads. This adaptation takes place to trick prey into believing the attack is taking place from where it is not.
A different type of deception is called camouflage which is where animals seek to look lifeless or not edible to avoid detection by predators and prey. There are many examples of rainforest species which are mysteriously colored to match their surroundings. An amazing group is the katydids, which is a group of grasshopper-like insects found everywhere. Katydids are nocturnal insects which use their various colors to stay unnoticed during the day when they are inactive. They stay still, and they are often in a position that makes them blend in even better. Katydids have changed so their body coloring and shape matches leaves, including half-eaten leaves, dying leaves, and leaves with bird droppings, sticks, twigs, and tree bark. Other well-known camouflage creatures are beetles, caterpillars, snakes, and frogs.
Some species appear to have noticeable colors when they really are not in the right surroundings. For example, the blue Morpho, has rainbow-like upper wings and a seven inch wingspan. But because the under wings are dark, when the Morpho flies through flickering light in the forest or even in daylight, it look like it disappears. Other forest species, especially mammals, have spots or stripes to help break up the animal's outline. In the shade large mammals like leopards and jaguars are difficult to see with their confusing colors.