Masters of disguise
Animals use a range of sneaky strategies to disappear before your very eyes
How creatures use camouflage to hide from predators and sneak up on prey
True camouflage goes far beyond patterned clothing and slathering on a bit of face paint. Millions of years of evolution have sculpted the natural world and everything that inhabits it. An enormous number of animal species have developed some kind of mechanism to hide from their enemies, even at point-blank range.
Being the same colour as the surroundings is one method to avoid detection. This is known as concealing colouration. Polar bears blend in with the icy backdrop, and green chameleons are almost indistinguishable among leafy trees. It’s no coincidence that many animals share their colour scheme with their environment, however. During evolution, conspicuous predators would have struggled to find food, and prey species that stuck out would have been snapped up quickly. An early death means an animal isn’t able to pass its genes on to the next generation. Those that survive long enough to breed give rise to offspring that have the same genetic strengths. This is how natural selection works, and species tend to get stronger with each new generation.
Several icy animals lose their white fur once the snow has melted. Arctic foxes are Iceland’s only native land mammal and are perfectly camouflaged against the dark, volcanic landscape during the summer. However, as the planet has undergone a lot of change over the past few centuries, some animal camouflage is out of date. Most seal pups are pure white to blend in with the Arctic snow in which they evolved. However, while some species remain in polar regions, many have migrated away from the frost but still retain that white baby fur.
If fitting in isn’t quite your thing, maybe disruptive colouration is for you. High contrast patterns make it difficult for the eye to detect an animal’s outline, and most experts agree that this is a better form of camouflage than matching the background. Zebras use their bold stripes to confuse predators in several different ways. A lion may misjudge which direction the zebra is facing, giving the banded horse a split-second advantage if the big cat gets it wrong. Alternatively, a hunter observing a group may have difficulty judging where one animal ends and the next begins. This could result in a poorly aimed chomp from which the zebras can flee unharmed to safety.
Predators use this strategy too. Hyenas have dark spots to cloak their shape from vigilant prey. Animals that are likely to be hunted have been hard-wired to look out for signs of danger over millions of years, but patterned predators like hyenas or African wild dogs are able to get close enough to their prey without detection to snatch a single animal from a herd.
Some animals only rely on their pattern in infancy. Baby tapirs bear bright, cream-coloured stripes along the body and down each limb. The fully grown monochrome mother doesn’t need camouflage as she has a much better chance of defending herself from one of the species’ few natural predators than a new-born calf would. As a result the stripes fade once the young tapir reaches a safer size.
Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, and a huge range of animals have found success by pretending to be something they are not. An
“Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery…many animals pretend to be something they’re not”
obvious example is the hoverfly, which has black and yellow bands that resemble those of wasps. Early flies that had warning stripes may have been avoided by predators for fear of the sting. Thus, hoverflies have survived over the years by hiding in plain sight by accident.
Then there is Batesian mimicry, where animals find success in copying a more dangerous or less palatable species. Harmless scarlet kingsnakes mimic their venomous coral snake cousins to avoid being picked off by a predator. Delicious viceroy butterflies masquerade as their foul-tasting monarch neighbours to deter bird attacks. Female mocker swallowtail butterflies can take on one of many morphs that look like local toxic butterflies. Males don’t have this ability, and while nobody knows why, it has been suggested that males and females wouldn’t recognise one another if they were both disguised as other species.
But mimics don’t just copy other animals. Leaf-tailed geckos and orchid mantises pose as plant parts to get close to their insect prey. On the other side of the same coin, plant mimics like the bizarre potoo can fool a ravenous meat-eater into leaving the scene empty-handed. These birds pose on trees or atop wooden poles and puff up their feathers to match the circumference of the perch. A passing carnivore would struggle to determine what’s tree and what’s tasty bird meat.
Some animals use disguise to survive, meaning they adopt a different appearance to conceal themselves. 300 different spider species imitate ants by pretending their front two legs are actually antennae. They wave these limbs around in a similar fashion to an exploring insect and even adopt a meandering, ant-like gait to gain the trust of their future food.
Other species physically cover up their bodies to shield themselves from the world. Decorator crabs have a shell covered with Velcro-like barbs. The crustacean attaches bits of anemone and sponge to its back to blend in with ocean flora, and these fashion statements can even attract marine life to take up residence on the crab’s back. Some decorator crabs take this even further by carefully selecting toxic algae to wear, so even if it does get recognised it has a back-up plan. Like most other crabs, the animal moves on when its body gets too large for the brittle
“Assassin bugs sheathe their bodies with insect carcasses to gain the trust of passing prey”
shell. A decorator crab will picks its ornaments from its old shell and transfers them over to its new carapace.
Parrotfish make themselves a mucous sac in which to sleep to disguise themselves from predators. But this works the other way around too, with some hunting animals able to hide their true identity from unsuspecting prey. Assassin bugs sheathe their bodies with debris or even insect carcasses to gain the trust of passing prey. As the name suggests, these animals are effective killers and a bite can leave a human in agony for several months.
Then there are the camouflaged critters that have to get well and truly creative with their cloaking ability in order to survive. Caterpillars of the Zulu blue and Roodepoort copper butterflies live among ant colonies. While they don’t look anything like their wingless roommates, the butterflies-to-be produce the same chemicals emitted by ant larvae. This triggers a parental care response from the surrounding ants to trick them into approaching, at which point they can be gobbled down by the very hungry caterpillars.
Underwing and tiger moths hoodwink bats by creating phantom sounds. Their soft insect bodies absorb echolocation calls from hunting bats, and the moths produce noises that mimic distant echoes of the bat’s sonar. While a human would easily be able to tell the difference between a bat and a moth, the flitting mammals rely so strongly on sound that they struggle to tell which echo is genuine.
As for the reptile world, deadly puff adders can evade detection by sniffer dogs by suppressing their own scent, a vital skill (known as chemical crypsis) when trying to avoid scent-reliant predators like mongooses and meerkats. How these adders remain fragrance free still baffles scientists. The snakes could have an extremely low metabolism, breathe at minimum frequency or even hold off on breathing when sleep. That might seem extreme, but puff adders only have a 40 per cent chance of survival each year. They do everything in their power to live on and reproduce, and maybe holding their breath all night is a small price to pay to live another day.