Summary
This article discusses some of the essential ideas about camouflage in the wild, an important component of the evolutionary process. There are three main functions disguise plays in nature: worsening detention, imposing difficulties for identification, and redirection of attack. Detection means that camouflage makes it hard for predators to detect prey because of an improper signal-to-noise ratio. The difficulties of identification refer to the deception of predators’ cognitive systems to make the prey’s body uninteresting for them. In other words, prey looks like a natural object, which may be a leaf or a stone, so predators do not pay attention to these places. Lastly, redirection of attention seems to be the most unusual camouflage strategy. Prey redirects predators’ attention to the places of the body, damage to which is considered to be not lethal.
After that, the author tried to understand what strategy was the most effective. To do so, some scholars recently conducted literature reviews of 84 studies on this matter. The major conclusion was that camouflage that redirects predators’ attention is the best way to survive. In the final lines of the article, the author explained how nature inspired urbanists to construct wallpapers that reduced the noise from traffic for people living in nearby houses.
Critical Analysis
In general, the article greatly summarized and introduced the topic of disguise to the readers of the Economist journal. Starting the article with the classical classification of strategy types, the author continued with an exciting case study of the dead leaf butterfly. Nevertheless, it seems that some aspects may be added to the text. First of all, some scholars emphasize the difference in behavior between animals living in groups and solitary ones. A great example to illustrate this difference are groups of zebras. Being alone, a zebra cannot use its disguise techniques in the most effective way (National Geographic, n.d.). It will instinctively change its behavior and become more vulnerable to a predator. At the same time, zebras in a group form a rapidly moving area in which it is almost impossible to notice individual zebras. Therefore, such an important fact could be developed in part of the discussion about detention.
Another influential branch of literature is the use of camouflage by predators. In the initial article, although there was some minor discussion on the predator side, it still remains a highly prey-centered text. Smith and Ruxton (2020) emphasize that “less attention has been given overall to predatory camouflage strategies, likely a result of increased challenges when monitoring predatory behaviour” (p. 1326). Smith and Ruxton (2020) also classify strategies of predators’ camouflage quite differently: it incorporates aggressive mimicry, aggressive masquerade, and aggressive crypsis. Indeed, it may be interesting to mention in the Economist text the difficulties researchers face in their study of predatory camouflage and how predators’ and prey’s disguise methods are interlinked.
Finally, considering the last passage of the article in Economist, the more obvious example of how humans use camouflage are military affairs. In the modern armed forces, camouflage is used not only for personnel but for tanks, aircraft, vehicles, and ships. One of the possible ideas is to uncover the link between the natural use of disguise and human-created techniques. For example, one may consider the evolution of camouflage from ancient times to modernity. Over time, the military likely adopted strategies from various animals, finding the right balance for the most effective use.
References
National Geographic. (n.d.). Camouflage.
Smith, M. Q., & Ruxton, G. D. (2020). Camouflage in predators. Biological Reviews, 95(5), 1325-1340.