Disruptive coloration and background pattern matching
Cuthill, Innes C. (University of Bristol)
Stevens, Martin (University of Bristol)
Sheppard, Jenna (University of Bristol)
Haddocks, Tracey (University of Bristol)
Parraga, Carlos Alejandro (University of Bristol. Department of Experimental Psychology)
Troscianko, Tom (University of Bristol. Department of Experimental Psychology)

Data:	2005
Resum:	Effective camouflage renders a target indistinguishable from irrelevant background objects. Two interrelated but logically distinct mechanisms for this are background pattern matching (crypsis1,2) and disruptive coloration: in the former, the animal's colours are a random sample of the background; in the latter, bold contrasting colours on the animal's periphery break up its outline. The latter has long been proposed as an explanation for some apparently conspicuous coloration in animals, and is standard textbook material. Surprisingly, only one quantitative test of the theory exists, and one experimental test of its effectiveness against non-human predators. Here we test two key predictions: that patterns on the body's outline should be particularly effective in promoting concealment and that highly contrasting colours should enhance this disruptive effect Artificial moth-like targets were exposed to bird predation in the field, with the experimental colour patterns on the 'wings' and a dead mealworm as the edible 'body'. Survival analysis supported the predictions, indicating that disruptive coloration is an effective means of camouflage, above and beyond background pattern matching.
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Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Publicat a:	Nature, Vol. 434 (March 2005) , p. 72-74, ISSN 1476-4687

DOI: 10.1038/nature03312
PMID: 15744301

Postprint 7 p, 428.1 KB

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