Studies in Natural Selection: Simulating the Effectiveness of Camouflage on Survivability in the Wild

In order to simulate how camouflage functions as a defense mechanism against predators in two different "environments," the lab group conducted two trials of "hunting" that occurred over three predation periods. The group placed 100 total chips in ten different colors (red, dark blue, light blue, green, black, pink, yellow, orange, white, and beige) on a square of patterned cloth; then every lab member took turns at grabbing the first chip they saw. After the group had removed 75 prey from the cloth, they counted the remaining chips and recorded the quantity of each color. At this point, the 25 remaining chips symbolized the number that had lived enough to reproduce. The lab group then repeated this hunting process over two more "generations" to observe which color chip, or "species," would likely survive over a long period of time in the wild. Then they reproduced the experiment on another piece of cloth with a different pattern to observe which color chips would have the best chance at surviving in this new environment.

In the first trial, the lab group displayed the colored chips against a plaid cloth consisting of several colors. The colors included red, gray, teal, aqua, orange, violet, and periwinkle. In the first round of predation, 3 red chips, 8 dark blue, 1 light blue, 1 green, 9 black, 3 pink, 0 yellow, 1 orange, 0 white, and 1 beige chips remained. In the second round of predation, 0 red, 10 dark blue, 0 light blue, 0 green, 15 black, 0 pink, 0 yellow, 0 orange, 0 white, and 0 beige chips remained. In the third round of predation, only 2 dark blues and 23 blacks survived; none of the other species existed.

In the second trial, the lab group displayed colored chips against a mosaic cloth consisting of multiple colors. The colors included red, yellow, dark blue, light blue, and green against a yellow background. In the first round of predation, 2 black, 0 white, 2 beige, 0 light blue, 8 dark blue, 1 yellow, 6 red, 2 pink, 3 green, 1 orange chips remained. In the second round of predation, 0 black, 0 white, 1 beige, 0 light blue, 14 dark blue, 0 yellow, 7 red, 0 pink, 3 green, 0 orange chips remained. In the third round of predation, only 15 dark blue and 10 red chips remained.

Discussion for Predator/Prey Camouflage Simulation

Lab members immediately saw certain colors more often than other colors because they contrasted against the colors represented in the cloth. In other words, they lacked the ability to camouflage from predators in their own environment. Other colors, ones more similar to the ones represented in the cloth, survived in greater numbers because they hid better from their predators. They had inherited that trait from previous generations. As demonstrated by this experiment, competition is the primary method of evolution. Species with more conspicuous colors could not compete in the environment long enough to produce offspring and eventually became extinct.

In the first trial, the data did not support the hypothesis that the dark blue chips would experience the highest overall survival rate out of all ten colors. Black chips had the highest number of remaining chips by the third generations and thus the best survival rate. Phrased differently, natural selection chose for by a black coloring in the environment with a plaid cloth of red, gray, teal, aqua, orange, violet, and periwinkle. This makes sense because all of the colors in the environment are mute enough for black to hide. In an environment where predators depend heavily upon their sight for hunting their prey, the black chips are the only species in the experiment who could potentially perpetuate their species for several more predation periods (assuming some natural disaster does not occur or a non-native/invasive species does not enter the environment), followed by the dark blue chips. Like the black chips, the dark blue chips were dark and muted enough to hide in the cloth.

In the second trial, the data did not support the hypothesis that the black chips would experience the greatest survival rate out of all of the ten colors. Because the dark blue chips yielded the highest number of survivors, they had the best survival rate. Natural selection chose for by a dark blue coloring in the environment with a mosaic cloth of red, yellow, dark blue, light blue, and green with a yellow background. This makes sense because the dark blue can hide in the dark blue and green spots of its environment. Barring the incident of a natural disaster or introduction of a non-native/invasive species, dark blue has the greatest chance of perpetuating its species, followed by the red chips. Just as the dark blue chips could hide in dark blue spots of their environment, the red chips could hide in the red spots.

Overall, it seems like successful camouflage involves sharing the same colors as the environment or being mute enough to blend into the colors existing in the environment.