Animals with Disruptive Colouration

While background matching and disruptive colouration can seem similar in aspects, they differ in one fundamental way. Background matching is ideal for one specific area (or background), however disruptive colouration can suit many environments and poses to confuse (Cuthill & Szekely, 2009).

The red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis) are birds that lay their eggs on the bare ground (Saez-Gomez et al., 2018). This is a very dangerous behaviour for these birds as there are many ground dwelling predators about, like the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) (Saez-Gomez et al., 2018). To protect themselves against these hazards they have developed incredible disruptive colouration. The contrasting colouration of their feathers interacts with their background and often blurs their outline. It camouflages the red-necked nightjar so it is able to sit on it’s nest long enough to produce offspring. If the nightjar’s disruptive colouration is good enough it will avoid predators and pass on it’s amazing camouflage genes.

red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis) 

Interestingly, a theory by Cott (1940) discusses the disruptive colouration used to camouflage eyes on animals. As eyes can be round, coloured or dark and can stand out while trying to hide, organisms have developed ways of concealing them. This can be by breaking up the eye with colour, a dark “mask” running across the face or mottling. There are many animal taxa that use this technique (Cuthill & Szekely, 2009).

One example of eye distortion using disruptive colouration is the southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala) (Cuthill & Szekely, 2009). As you can see in the picture, the southern leopard frog has a very thing dark strip from its nose to back, including the eye. Directly above the dark line there is a golden coloured strip that matches the placement of the darker line. The golden strip is matched within the eye, just at the top. These strips of colour disrupt the roundness of the eye itself (Cuthill & Szekely, 2009). The colouration on the rest of the body is mottled, with another golden line above its mouth. Like the red-necked nightjar, the southern leopard frog is using its disruptive colouration to pass on its genes to the next generation.

southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala)

References

Cott, H. B. 1940 Adaptive coloration in animals. Methuen Publishing, Oxford University Press, UK.

Cuthill C., & Szekely A. (2009). Coincident Disruptive Coloration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364, 480-496.

Saez-Gomez P., Palacios S., & Camacho C. (2018). Landscape Change Promotes the Emergence of a Rare Predator-Prey Interaction. Food Webs. 15, 1-3.