Background matching and disruptive coloration as habitat-specific strategies for camouflage
Price, N; Green, S; Troscianko, J; et al.Tregenza, T; Stevens, M
Date: 24 May 2019
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Research
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Camouflage is a key defence across taxa and frequently critical to survival. A common strategy is
background matching, resembling the colour and pattern of the environment. This approach,
however, may be ineffective in complex habitats where matching one patch may lead to increased
visibility in other patches. In contrast, ...
Camouflage is a key defence across taxa and frequently critical to survival. A common strategy is
background matching, resembling the colour and pattern of the environment. This approach,
however, may be ineffective in complex habitats where matching one patch may lead to increased
visibility in other patches. In contrast, disruptive coloration, which disguises body outlines, may be
effective against complex backgrounds. These ideas have rarely been tested and previous work
focuses on artificial systems. Here, we test the camouflage strategies of the shore crab (Carcinus
maenas) in two habitats, being a species that is highly variable, capable of plastic changes in
appearance, and lives in multiple environments. Using predator (bird and fish) vision modelling and
image analysis, we quantified background matching and disruption in crabs from rock pools and
mudflats, predicting that disruption would dominate in visually complex rock pools but background
matching in more uniform mudflats. As expected, rock pool individuals had significantly higher
edge disruption than mudflat crabs, whereas mudflat crabs more closely matched the substrate than
rock pool crabs for colour, luminance, and pattern. Our study demonstrates facultative expression of
camouflage strategies dependent on the visual environment, with implications for the evolution and
interrelatedness of defensive strategies.
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