Why are toxic Animals colourful?

They use coloration to warn potential predators that they are not worth attacking or eating, often because of their toxicity, venom, foul taste, or aggressive nature. That way, both predators and prey are avoiding potential harm. But how did they evolve this way and why?

Evolution

To easily understand how evolution occurred in these species, scientists divided animals into two groups: those with bright colours (like yellow, blue, white, black, and red) and those with camouflage. Scientists think that animals first evolved vivid colours in body parts partially hidden from the predator, like limbs and under their bodies. This type has both camouflage and bright colours, still exists today, and reveals its flashing colours only when threatened. A good example of that are some species of Newts.

As time went by, amphibians started to rely more on their colours and evolved into making their whole bodies bright to demonstrate more easily to predators just how toxic they really are. The best example of that is the Dart frog.

Behaviour

The warning coloration is called Aposematism and relies on the memory of the unsuccessful predator. That’s why most animals that evolved that way are highly resistant to injury and don’t die after an attack. They are often slow-moving and sociable. That’s because they don’t have the need to hide or stay still; that way, they have more time to find better-quality food.

Mimicry

Aposematism has influenced the evolution of both animals that possess it and those who don’t. Because of the effectiveness of the bright colours, animals evolved to mimic them, although they didn’t necessarily have anything to harm potential predators. Scientists decided to divide them into two groups. First are the non-aposematic animals that mimic the markings of their toxic counterpart; that’s called Batesian mimicry.

 

(Photo above shows the highly venomous coral snake on the left and the harmless milk snake on the right)

The second way animals adapt to copy each other is called Müllerian mimicry and occurs when aposematic species start to share the same colours so that predators associate them more easily with potential distress and start to avoid them more often.

 

So that was it! – I hope you learned a lot regarding the spectacular wildlife on our planet with The Wildlife Echo!