Camouflage & defence

In nature almost every animal wants to avoid being eaten. Some run away, others have cleverer tricks. They make themselves invisible, pretend to be dangerous, or warn with bright colours. In this chapter you will get to know the most important protective strategies of animals.

Camouflage: simply not standing out

The simplest defence is not being seen in the first place. Many animals have a colour that matches their habitat exactly. A snow hare wears a greyish brown coat in summer and a white one in winter, and a green grasshopper disappears in the grass. Some animals even look like a twig or a leaf. An animal that does not stand out is easily overlooked by predators.

Mimicry: pretending

Some animals protect themselves by copying a dangerous animal. This is called mimicry. A harmless hoverfly, for example, wears the same yellow and black stripes as a wasp. Predators avoid it because they think of the sting of a real wasp. The hoverfly cannot sting at all, but the trick still works.

Warning colours and other weapons

Other animals do the exact opposite of camouflage: they stand out on purpose. A poison dart frog glows bright red or blue. These warning colours clearly tell predators that it is not fit to eat. The trick works because predators learn fast: a predator that has licked such a frog once leaves every other glowing animal alone. Still other animals defend themselves with real weapons such as spines, a shell, or a foul smell.