Camouflage: Hide and Seek
Today we learned about how animals use camouflage and mimicry to adapt to their environments and increase their chances of survival. We discussed specific kinds of animals that have developed exceptionally unique types of camouflage.
We also learned about animal mimicry, which occurs when an organism evolves to look like another and we discussed the reasons why this might happen. Examples of mimicry include a tasty and harmless moth evolving to look like a wasp or a nonvenomous snake evolving to have the same colors as a venomous snake.
We spent most of our lesson with imagining creatures with special adaptations to help them survive. Students were assigned a habitat (oceans, mountains, rainforests, etc) and designed an animal that has developed different types of special features to better adapt to that habitat (including camouflage or mimicry). This camouflage lesson is always a student favorite!
Additional Information:
Want to learn more about camouflage? Check out this video on the Indonesian Mimic Octopus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oQBYw6xxc
