Event Title
Corn snakes, crypsis, and substrate complexity: Do cryptic snakes choose complex backgrounds?
Faculty Mentor
Charles M. Watson
Location
Library 7th Floor
Start Date
13-4-2013 2:45 PM
End Date
13-4-2013 3:45 PM
Description
Crypsis (camouflage) is a concealment mechanism employed by many animals to avoid detection. If an organism chooses backgrounds within its habitat that increases concealment, then it could increase the effectiveness of crypsis and therefore increase its own fitness. We use two approaches; an all-options choice trial and pair wise choice trials to determine if the corn snake chooses lighter or darker homogeneous substrate, substrate of greater complexity, substrate matching their own color and pattern, or exhibits no preference. We find that they tend to choose more complex substrates and avoid the high contrast of all-white backgrounds.
Corn snakes, crypsis, and substrate complexity: Do cryptic snakes choose complex backgrounds?
Library 7th Floor
Crypsis (camouflage) is a concealment mechanism employed by many animals to avoid detection. If an organism chooses backgrounds within its habitat that increases concealment, then it could increase the effectiveness of crypsis and therefore increase its own fitness. We use two approaches; an all-options choice trial and pair wise choice trials to determine if the corn snake chooses lighter or darker homogeneous substrate, substrate of greater complexity, substrate matching their own color and pattern, or exhibits no preference. We find that they tend to choose more complex substrates and avoid the high contrast of all-white backgrounds.