clockwise from top left: eastern red milksnake (photo credit: Matt Brock), coral snake (photo credit: Nick Sharp), scarlet kingsnake (photo credit: Dan Hipes)
MONTGOMERY-Having just celebrated Halloweenit brings to mine costumes and disguises. Halloween costumes originated over 2000 years ago when people would wear costumes to ward off ghosts and other dangers. Similarly, there are many species of wildlife that wear “costumes” to fool or avoid predation. Wildlife use deceptive coloration by looking similar to their environmental elements, either by camouflage or imitating traits from others, known as mimicry.
Mimicry is an evolutionary method of deception that many species use to trick predators by appearing more threatening, benign, or like something completely different than what they are. There are many forms of mimicry, but most often, animals mimic things that their predator fears or does not like to eat. This form of mimicry is termed Batesian mimicry. It is like hiding Halloween candy in an empty box of raisins. The candy still tastes as good, but many will pass by the box thinking that it only contains raisins.
One example of Batesian mimicry is the harmless scarlet kingsnake and eastern milksnake that mimic the flashy traits of the venomous coral snake. The coral snake has colorful black, red, and yellow bands that follow a specific pattern where the yellow bands are always next to the red ones. Similarly, the scarlet kingsnake and eastern milksnake have bands of red, black, and yellow, but what distinguishes these two species from the coral snake is the pattern of the colored bands – the yellow bands have black bands on either side of them. Many have learned or heard a variation of the saying, “Red touches yellow, kill a fellow. Red touches black, okay jack.” While we can recite this saying when we see a snake with those colorations, most predators see the colorful bands and simply leave the snakes alone, even the non-venomous ones.
Several insects like to mimic wildlife too. An insect that wears many masks is the spicebush swallowtail butterfly. As a young caterpillar, they are dark brown with white streaks, often resembling bird feces. When a predator sees what it thinks is bird droppings, it won’t think twice about consuming and will carry on with its day! Further, in its last caterpillar phase, it becomes greenish-yellow with two large false eyespots, mimicking a common green snake and once again deterring many predators. False eyespots are a common tactic to confuse predators. Sometimes the spots are located on a less vulnerable part of the body, while other times they can trick the predator into thinking they are seeing the eyes of a larger animal, like the eyespots on an owl butterfly mimicking the eyes of an owl.
While we only wear Halloween costumes one day of the year, many wildlife species wear their “masks” throughout their lives. To learn more about these species, visit the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Watchable Wildlife page on Outdoor Alabama.
Media Release/Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
