Stripes for warning and stripes for hiding: spatial frequency and detection distance

James B. Barnett, Annabelle S. Redfern, Robin Bhattacharyya-Dickson, Olivia Clifton, Thomas Courty, Thien Ho, Annabel Hopes, Thomas McPhee, Kaitlin Merrison, Robert Owen, Nicholas E. Scott-Samuel and Innes C. Cuthill

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 2, 373-381

Abstract: Lay Summary Stripes are common in nature and can be used both as camouflage and warning signals. We show how the color and thickness of stripes affects each strategy differently. By comparing predation rates from wild birds and the initial detection distance measured by human observers, we find that camouflaged stripes should match the background in stripe size and orientation, whereas warning stripes balance the benefits of signal repetition, conspicuousness, and recognition when viewed from greater distances.Twitter: @Camo_Lab

Keywords: aposematism; background matching; camouflage; coloration; detection distance; predation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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