Camouflage is what animals do to blend into their surroundings. Camouflage can help prey hide from predators, it can also help predators hide from prey, so that they can ambush their prey. Mimicry is what animals do to mimic another animal or plant. Mimicry can help prey escape from predators, it can also help weaker animals scare away bigger or stronger animals. These two methods both can help animals, but there is a major difference, mimicry can help animals more than camouflage.
These are a few examples of animals that can camouflage. Arctic foxes live in places that are cold, such as the snowy tundra. To blend in, these foxes have a white coat of fur that can help it hide. Chameleons change their skin color to match its surroundings, if it is on a green leaf, it will turn green, if it is in a wheat field, it will turn yellow. Predators can not see it if it is the same color as its background. The leaf-tailed gecko is like a leaf, with its leaf-shaped tail, it can easily blend in with leaves. Stick insects have long stick-like bodies, their body is also brown, which makes it easily confused as a branch or stick. So, these are examples of animals that can camouflage.
Here are some examples of animals that use mimicry. Foureye butterfish are a kind of butterflyfish that pretend to be bigger fish. Towards its tail there are two big spots that can be misunderstood as eyes, this can scare away predators or make them not eat it. Dead leaf mantises act like dead leaves to hide from predators, it can also help them attract prey. Flower mantises pretend to be a certain kind of flower, to attract prey. Katydids mimic green leaves to protect themselves from predators. Alligator snapping turtles’ mouth mimics a rock or a cave with a worm inside, this lures fish in. So, these are examples of animals that can use mimicry.
If I could choose, I would like to have the capability of mimicry. Firstly, sometimes camouflage doesn’t work on animals that rely on smell, but mimicry can fool many animals. For a predator who can smell you out, blending into the background is no use. But if you mimic another animal or plant, that predator will not hunt you down. Secondly, it can improve my opportunities to get food. Mimicry can help you scare away other animals. This can help you get more food. Last but not the least, mimicry works all the time, but camouflage doesn’t work in all situations. Mimicry can make others think you are something else, but camouflage only makes you blend into the surroundings. If you are in a place that you cannot blend into, then camouflage sometimes can help you, but mimicry can work.
In conclusion, camouflage can make animals blend into their surroundings and mimicry can help them pretend to be something else. These two things have a common purpose, they both can help animals protect themselves. They need to protect themselves because they need to survive in the wild. In nature, it often comes down between predator and prey, prey must hide from predators and predators must get food. Humans need to live, so do animals. We can also help animals survive by stopping advertisement hunting, advertisement hunting can cause a lot of animals to die. We can also protect the environment, we can stop air pollution or water pollution. By driving less gasoline cars and reducing the dirty things that we put into the water.
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