Hey everyone, this is Emily with snake discovery. As we all know, we live in a predator
versus prey world--you either eat or you get eaten. So, over time animals have evolved special characteristics
and adaptations to help them survive in their environments. Today, we are going to be talking about
the different types of camouflage and mimicry you see in the animal kingdom with a focus on reptiles.
Let's start with the most common and probably the most well-known type of camouflage,
which is cryptic coloration. Crypsis is the ability to avoid detection in your environment.
Now, a cryptic coloration is when an animal has colors and patterns that help it blend into its
natural surroundings. A great example of cryptic coloration would be this fox snake right here.
This snake has a brown overall color and kind of a blotchy pattern. This is more of a generalized type of
cryptic coloration because they live in several different types of habitats. I mean, fox snakes are on the move,
so they want to blend into whatever they happen to be in at that moment. So, this generalized color and pattern
helps them blend into fallen leaf litter, along with tree bark, and even when they're exploring fields,
but reptiles that stay in a more specific
type of environment like, say, leachianus geckos that spend the majority of their time on or in trees,
they take it one step further and they look specifically like tree bark.
They even go so far as to have blotches of scales that look like lichen over their body.
Another great example of a reptile with cryptic coloration would be the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko.
These geckos spend so much time in the trees that they look like brown leaves from head to tail.
I mean, even just their tail looks like a leaf. Now crypsis, which is the ability to blend into your environment,
is not just visual or morphological. There's a behavioral component too that's very important.
I mean, the reptile has to stay in the type of environment that it's
evolved to blend into, so there's a little bit of behavior that goes into that too.
But some animals go further than that and not only do they blend into their environment,
but they act like their surroundings too. Take, like, the praying mantis
I mean, I know it's not a reptile, but bear with me here. Praying mantises look like
leaves and twigs and they also act like leaves and twigs by swaying in the breeze.
This is called cryptic behavior,
so they're behaving in a way that helps them blend into their environment.
The second type of camouflage that I'd like to cover in today's video is dazzle camouflage or dazzle coloration.
In this type of camouflage, animals rely on highly contrasting colors and patterns
like black and white stripes of like schooling fish to confuse predators into not knowing where
the prey's body starts and where it ends and, therefore, the predator doesn't know where to strike.
So, you know, you've always heard of the term "safety in numbers?"
Well, this is particularly true for animals that exhibit dazzle camouflage or dazzle coloration.
Now, it used to be believed that zebras had dazzle coloration to protect them from predators,
but it was just discovered recently, like in just 2016, that the pattern on a zebra
doesn't confuse their predators, which are large cats primarily and hyenas.
Instead, the pattern on a zebra just deters biting flies.
I wasn't able to find an example of a reptile that has been confirmed to use dazzle coloration and my
assumption is because reptiles are pretty solitary animals and dazzle coloration really only works if
you're in a large group of similarly colored animals or the same species basically, so that's why it works so well
with schooling fish and that's why we thought zebras used it, but I don't think, now someone correct me if I'm wrong,
but I don't think dazzle coloration is actually used in reptiles. Now, instead of relying on color or behavior to hide from their predators,
some prey species have actually evolved toxic chemicals to make themselves taste bad,
make them poisonous, or venomous. Interestingly enough, these toxic prey items are usually associated
with bright colors that make them easier for predators to see. This is called aposematic
coloration or aposematic camouflage.
It's also like warning coloration because really the bright colors are warning symbols to predators.
A great example of a reptile with aposematic coloration
is the coral snake. Those bright colors down its body in the form of bands
are an excellent warning symbol to tell predators to stay away because that is a venomous snake.
It's basically not a profitable prey item because it's not worth the risk to that predator to eat it.
Instinctually, a lot of predators know to avoid animals with these bright warning colors,
but for those who don't have the natural instinct to avoid them, studies have shown that it only takes one
negative experience with an animal with aposematic coloration for that predator to avoid animals
with similar coloration for the rest of their life. Just like with cryptic coloration and cryptic
behavior, which helps an animal blend in to its environment and hide, there is both
aposematic coloration and aposematic behavior.
So, basically, animals have a warning symbol that they display in order to fend off predators.
Some prey items don't have big flashy colors to act as a warning symbol. Instead,
they have a warning symbol that they act out.
For example, the saw-scaled viper, which lives in Africa, may not look brightly colored,
but it is venomous and it's warning behavior is to rub its rough scales together, which
makes kind of a raspy sound and that is associated with something venomous to predators, so they leave the
saw-scaled viper alone. However, defending yourself with toxic chemicals takes a lot of energy in
order to produce. That energy could be used foraging for food or reproducing, so some animals have learned
how to reap the benefits of being treated as if they were harmful, even though they're completely harmless.
Basically, they just mimic those harmful species' warning symbols or warning behaviors.
This is called Batesian mimicry, which is the first type of mimicry I want to discuss
in today's video. Batesian mimicry was named after Henry Bates,
who was the naturalist who first described this phenomenon.
A glorious example of Batesian mimicry is with the milk snake.
Now before we continue, it's good to know the difference between mimics and models.
The mimic is the harmless animal that's doing the mimicking, like the milk snake here is the mimic.
The model is the harmful species that they are mimicking. This is the mimic, and the coral snake is the
model. By mimicking the coral snake, predators avoid the milk snake, even though it is completely harmless--
this isn't a venomous species at all. But potential predators see it as being venomous, so they just
leave it alone. It's important that the mimic is less common than the model. If there are more
milk snakes than there were coral snakes, then if a predator were to attack one of them,
it would most likely attack a milk snake, being more prevalent, and
it wouldn't learn its lesson because it would eat it successfully and it'd be a tasty meal, and that kind of
defeats the purpose of these guys mimicking coral snakes. Batesian mimicry is not just visual--
there's such thing as behavioral Batesian mimicry,
which means it's an animal that mimics the warning behavior of a toxic species in order to be treated as a
toxic species and then be left alone. My example for this is the African egg-eating snake.
It lives in the same range as the saw-scaled viper in Africa which,
as you may recall, will rub its rough scales together to create a warning signal to scare off predators
Well, the egg-eating snake, although it's not venomous--it doesn't even have teeth--it will also
rub its scales together because it lives in the same area as a saw-scaled viper and it tricks predators into
thinking that it's a viper when in all actuality,
it is completely harmless. When a harmless species mimics a harmful species in order to protect itself,
it's called defensive mimicry because it's really just doing it in defense of itself.
Now, there's another type of mimicry out there called aggressive mimicry when it's basically the reverse.
It's when a harmful species like a toxic species mimics a completely harmless species
in order to trick prey items to come in close, and then it catches them and eats them.
A great example of this would be the green tree python. They use their
small little tail and they wiggle it around like a worm and they lure in their prey with it. When a prey item
gets close enough thinking its tail is a tasty grub, then the green tree python will reach out and eat it.
This is called caudal luring. "Caudal" is the term for tail. Like, the tail of a fish is called the caudal fin,
so caudal luring means luring in with the tail.
And, finally, the last type of mimicry that I'd like to cover in today's video is called Müllerian mimicry.
It was named after Fritz Müller, who was the person who described it originally. Müllerian mimicry is when
two or more distasteful or harmful species have the same warning signal.
This makes predators just avoid them all so it's kind of mutually beneficial because they help each other out.
It's a type of mimicry because they're essentially mimicking each other's warning signal.
A great example of this would be rattlesnakes. There's all sorts of different species of rattlesnakes.
There's different colors, there's different sizes, different shapes, but they all have the same warning signal,
which is rattling their tail, so predators have learned to avoid all rattlesnakes altogether. As such, it's
mutually beneficial when multiple species work together and have the same warning signal--
they don't really work together, they just mimic each other--
but, they have the same warning signal, therefore predators pick up on it, and they leave them all alone.
That works great for all prey species involved.
But that pretty much covers all the types of camouflage and mimicry that I wanted to cover in today's video,
so I hope you learned something new, and this is your quiz to see how well you were listening:
this is a bull snake,
and I want you to tell me in regards to color what type of camouflage she exhibits. Is it cryptic coloration?
Is it dazzle coloration? Or is it aposematic coloration?
I also want you to tell me what kind of mimicry she exhibits. When these are threatened,
in case you don't already know I'll kind of help you out, they will buzz their tail like a rattlesnake.
So is that Batesian mimicry, aggressive mimicry, or Müllerian mimicry?
Let me know both the camouflage and mimicry that the bullsnakes use to help them survive
in the wild in the comments below and whoever guesses it first will have their comments pinned to the top,
of course, like always. Once again, I want to thank you all for joining me today
and watching today's video and learning about camouflage and mimicry when it comes to reptiles.
I also want to thank all of our patreon supporters for backing this channel and all of your generosity
And your support we really do appreciate it. Thank you again, everyone, and we'll see you next time.
*funky tunes*