01 Animal Defenses Flashcards
What is Natural History?
The observational science of fauna and flora in the real world.
Who studies Natural History
A naturalist.
Animals include?
mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and amphibians.
What is background matching
Siting motionless while matching the background.
Merging cryptic behavior (ie. not moving) with appearance.
Disruptive Pattern
Patterns which break up the outline of the body shape to make the animal camouflage better
Coincident Disruptive Coloring
When patterns on different parts of the body match up to create one solid pattern when the animal is in a certain position.
Group Coincident Disruptive Patterns
Group merging together to transform outline of overall form
Masquerade
Changing SHAPE and colour to hide
Bicolouration
Animals are coloured to be camouflaged from two different perspectives ex. whirligigs black on top white on bottom.
Countershading/Self-Shadow Concealment
Animals are lighter in areas where shadows will fall to create flat uniform shape and hide body dimensions
What are startle patterns and what do they need to do to be effective?
Brightly coloured parts of an animal which appear when they are threatened to give the animal a chance to escape. Usually varry so predator cannot get habituated to them.
What are eyespots, and what do they do?
Startle Pattern for intimidation make animal look large than it is
Startle Structures
Parts of the animal that come out when it is threatened to startle predators
Osmeterium
Swallow tailed caterpillar startle structure
Startle Sounds
Animal making noises to ward off predator.
Distraction/Deflection Patterns + Structures
Brightly coloured patterns on non-vital parts of the animal to draw predatory attention also include eyespots
What is body armour on animals and what does it do?
Structures that shield soft vulnerable parts of the body.
How do soft structures protect animals from being eaten? What are some forms of these soft strucutres?
Make the animal unappealing or difficult to eat
Hairs or fibers
Define Quills
Modified guard hairs
Poison Spines
Stiff hairs tipped with toxins used as a chemical defense.
Aposematic Colouration
Warning Colouration, yellow, red and orange to advertise poison and warn animals not to eat
Nighttime Aposematic Colouration
B + W
Sequester
Acquiring poison through something in their diet and store it in the body for use
Aggressive Mimicry
An animal uses mimicry to obtain a meal.
If an animal has a chemical defense it usually has ______.
Aposematic Colouration
Aposematic Colouration helps predator’s ______
learn + avoid that colour pattern
Mullerian Mimicry
Animals which have similar colouration, and all bear some sort of defense
Batesian Mimicry
Animals which have similar colouration and appearance where some animals are harmful (models) and some are harmless (mimics)
Batesian Mimicry only works if?
Models outweigh mimics and occur at the same time of year
Bluffing
Puffing up the body to appear larger and intimidate predators
Thanatosis
Playing Dead
What is gathering in large groups called as a defense? Why does it help?
Behavioral Group Defense
Safety in numbers + more eyes to spot danger
Three types of Behavioral Group Defense
Murmuration
Birds Mobbing
Bodyguards
There is a hypothesis about defense advertisement in deers. What is this?
white tail up on deer’s and bunnies lets predator know that they’ve been seen…?
Vigilance
Constantly being alert and scanning for danger
Jacobson Organ
Longer snout to allows more scents to be analyzed
Flemen
Exposing Jacobson Organ to air to let scents in
What are some night active visual vigilance features?
larger eyes
more rods in their eyes
tapetum lucidum
What contributes to eyeshine?
Tapetum Lucidum
What does the Tapetum Lucidum do?
Bounces light around eye to help conserve light
Pivoting ears are a type of ______
Auditory vigilance
Eyes on the side _________.
Eyes on the front _______.
make the vision wide
help you hunt
