Escape Distance in Ground-Nesting Birds Differs with Individual Level of Camouflage

Wilson‐Aggarwal, Jared K.; Troscianko, Jolyon; Stevens, Martin; Spottiswoode, Claire N.

doi:10.1086/687254

Cited by 45 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Furthermore, grasshoppers showed threat‐dependent behaviour in line with their camouflage level, in that individuals with better camouflage allowed predators to come closer before escaping. Similar findings have been found in ground‐nesting birds, whereby flight‐initiation distances from a nest when a threat approaches vary with levels of egg or adult camouflage (Wilson‐Aggarwal et al, ).…”

Section: Background Choicesupporting

confidence: 76%

The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage

2018

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Animal camouflage represents one of the most important ways of preventing (or facilitating) predation. It attracted the attention of the earliest evolutionary biologists, and today remains a focus of investigation in areas ranging from evolutionary ecology, animal decision-making, optimal strategies, visual psychology, computer science, to materials science. Most work focuses on the role of animal morphology per se, and its interactions with the background in affecting detection and recognition. However, the behaviour of organisms is likely to be crucial in affecting camouflage too, through background choice, body orientation and positioning; and strategies of camouflage that require movement. A wealth of potential mechanisms may affect such behaviours, from imprinting and self-assessment to genetics, and operate at several levels (species, morph, and individual). Over many years there have been numerous studies investigating the role of behaviour in camouflage, but to date, no effort to synthesise these studies and ideas into a coherent framework. Here, we review key work on behaviour and camouflage, highlight the mechanisms involved and implications of behaviour, discuss the importance of this in a changing world, and offer suggestions for addressing the many important gaps in our understanding of this subject.

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Section: Background Choicesupporting

confidence: 76%

The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage

2018

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“…A good approach is to analyse the overlap (in a species‐specific colour space) of the distributions of all colours in the objects being compared (Endler & Mielke, ), or the size distribution and spatial adjacency of colour patches (Endler, , ). Better still, from the perspective taken in this review, is to decompose the patterns with respect to their different spatial frequency components, which can then be used to assess similarity at coarse‐ to fine‐grained detail, or to produce an aggregate measure of ‘match’ (the method used by Troscianko et al ., ; Wilson‐Aggarwal et al ., ). This is an appealing approach because this is similar to what happens in the initial stages of visual processing (Troscianko et al ., ; Osorio & Cuthill, ; Merilaita et al ., ).…”

Section: Peeling the Onionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Camouflage

2019

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Animal camouflage has long been used to illustrate the power of natural selection, and provides an excellent testbed for investigating the trade‐offs affecting the adaptive value of colour. However, the contemporary study of camouflage extends beyond evolutionary biology, co‐opting knowledge, theory and methods from sensory biology, perceptual and cognitive psychology, computational neuroscience and engineering. This is because camouflage is an adaptation to the perception and cognition of the species (one or more) from which concealment is sought. I review the different ways in which camouflage manipulates and deceives perceptual and cognitive mechanisms, identifying how, and where in the sequence of signal processing, strategies such as transparency, background matching, disruptive coloration, distraction marks, countershading and masquerade have their effects. As such, understanding how camouflage evolves and functions not only requires an understanding of animal sensation and cognition, it sheds light on perception in other species.

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“…Many of the empirical studies that demonstrate a camouflage function of patterns in non-colour changing animals show an association in one or a limited number of species (e.g., Lovell et al, 2013; Kang et al, 2014; Marshall, Philpot & Stevens, 2015b.; Wilson-Aggarwal et al, 2016) or were found via predator–prey computer simulations (e.g., Stevens, Yule & Ruxton, 2008; Stevens et al, 2011; Scott-Samuel et al, 2011; Troscianko et al, 2013; How & Zanker, 2014; Hughes, Troscianko & Stevens, 2014; reviewed in Marshall & Gluckman, 2015). At the level of microhabitats, some studies demonstrate that individual behaviours may facilitate camouflage, such as a behavioural choice to rest on backgrounds that enhance camouflage (Tsurui, Honma & Nishida, 2010; Lovell et al, 2013; Kang et al, 2014; Marshall, Philpot & Stevens, 2015b.; Troscianko et al, 2016; Wilson-Aggarwal et al, 2016). Under current camouflage theory, microhabitat usage in closed and open habitats should result in irregular patterning being associated with all habitats, as it is typically invoked in static camouflage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global analysis of bird plumage patterns reveals no association between habitat and camouflage

Somveille

Marshall

Gluckman

2016

PeerJ

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Evidence suggests that animal patterns (motifs) function in camouflage. Irregular mottled patterns can facilitate concealment when stationary in cluttered habitats, whereas regular patterns typically prevent capture during movement in open habitats. Bird plumage patterns have predominantly converged on just four types—mottled (irregular), scales, bars and spots (regular)—and habitat could be driving convergent evolution in avian patterning. Based on sensory ecology, we therefore predict that irregular patterns would be associated with visually noisy closed habitats and that regular patterns would be associated with open habitats. Regular patterns have also been shown to function in communication for sexually competing males to stand-out and attract females, so we predict that male breeding plumage patterns evolved in both open and closed habitats. Here, taking phylogenetic relatedness into account, we investigate ecological selection for bird plumage patterns across the class Aves. We surveyed plumage patterns in 80% of all avian species worldwide. Of these, 2,756 bird species have regular and irregular plumage patterns as well as habitat information. In this subset, we tested whether adult breeding/non-breeding plumages in each sex, and juvenile plumages, were associated with the habitat types found within the species’ geographical distributions. We found no evidence for an association between habitat and plumage patterns across the world’s birds and little phylogenetic signal. We also found that species with regular and irregular plumage patterns were distributed randomly across the world’s eco-regions without being affected by habitat type. These results indicate that at the global spatial and taxonomic scale, habitat does not predict convergent evolution in bird plumage patterns, contrary to the camouflage hypothesis.

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Escape Distance in Ground-Nesting Birds Differs with Individual Level of Camouflage

Cited by 45 publications

References 52 publications

The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage

The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage

Camouflage

A global analysis of bird plumage patterns reveals no association between habitat and camouflage

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