(Image: University of Exeter)

Can you spot the nightjar? If you squint you might see her aligned across the centre of the image, beak to the left, tail feathers extending to the right. Her small rounded body is concealed beneath her mottled wing.

The nightjar is using disruptive camouflage – its body is dappled with different patterns which help to break up its outline.

The mantis below uses a different technique. It is a background-matcher, and here it bears an uncanny resemblance to the bark on the tree behind. This strategy leaves the creature’s outline open to detection, however.


(Image: Jolyon Troscianko)

New research shows that even these cleverly concealed animals had better beware. Predators can learn to see through their disguises, says a study led by Jolyon Troscianko at the University of Exeter, UK. The team tested human volunteers on how good they were at spotting well-disguised simulated moths on a computer screen.

The results showed that at first, predators might be fooled more often by the disruptive camouflage of the nightjar than the background-matching of the mantis. However, over time the human observers learned to see through disruptive camouflage more quickly – which means that animal predators might, too.

The better the camouflage of prey animals is at duping their predators, the more likely they are to survive to pass on their genes, producing generations of animals that fade undetected into their habitats. Now you see them… now you don’t.

Journal reference: PLoS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073733