Highlights are effective anti-predator signs

According to a study in Behavioral Ecology , the round dots in animals such as butterflies against predators are very effective because they are striking traits, not they catch before the shape of children. The eyes of the predator's own enemies. Zoologists have relied on Cambridge University's challenging 150-year theory of why these round marks are effective against predators.

Many animals possess protective dots to avoid being eaten, including patterns to reduce the risk of detection (disguise), to warn that this animal contains a good toxin. Can not eat meat (color warning), or to mimic imitation of another animal or other object (" imitation " and " fake "). Besides, many species such as butterflies, moths and fish have more than two pairs of round dots, often called ' eye spots '. Many eye spots are very effective when intimidating or startling predators, and can help prevent an attack. For the past 150 years it has been confirmed that it is because they imitate the eyes of the predators of the predators themselves.

However, recent research by Cambridge University zoologists Martin Stevens, Chloe Hardman, and Claire Stubbins, has shown that this widely recognized hypothesis has no experimental proof.

Stevens, Hardman, and Stubbins tested the reaction of carnivorous wild birds to his son made of waterproof paper. Special patterns such as scary eye spots with different shapes, sizes, numbers and levels of imitation of different eye shapes are printed on the paper with a high quality printer. . The pseudobulbs were mounted on various trees at a height of 2 to 3 meters in the temporary mixed wood forest Madingley Woods in Cambridgeshire, England. Each mock moth is attached to a rice worm (a worm sold in ornamental bird shops) to seduce forest birds such as corn finches, stone sparrow, bird finches and European sparrows.

Zoologists discovered that the pseudobulbs had a longer mark than those with other striking traits, and that those with marked spots made the predators stay away from them in general the size of the animals. big, there are many spots and highlights.

According to Dr. Stevens, the birds tend to avoid fake moths with markings such as bricks and square marks just as they avoid fake moths with two-eye marks. This suggests that the round marks in real animals do not necessarily mimic the eyes of other animals as most of the previous studies have claimed.

References: Highlights are effective anti-predator signs, not eye imitations (Martin Stevens, Chloe J. Hardman, and Claire L. Stubbins) Behavioral Ecology doi: 10.1093 / beheco / arm162.