Camouflaged Creatures

Camouflaged Creatures Activity Card To: You From: Corina Subject: Camouflaged creatures Dear Investigators, Help! How do creatures camouflage themselves? I know that clever creatures use camouflage to save themselves from danger. They are hard to see even though they are not hiding underneath anything – just like Wally in the Where’s Wally books! But what I want to know is how do they do it? Can you help me? Confused Corina Your challenge Help Corina to find out how different creatures are camouflaged by playing the Clever Camouflage Game. Discuss You need a brown or grey butterfly shape and a piece of white string so that you can start exploring your ideas. Try putting each of them in different places. Where are they difficult to see? Why do you think that is? Where can they be seen very easily? Why do you think that is? Can you do other things to help to camouflage them?

Getting started Some animals, such as snakes, use patterns to hide. Others, like stick insects, use their shape to try to stay hidden. There are other ways of camouflaging as well. What if you change the colour of things? What about their shape? Can you see a pattern that might help? Are some places better than others? Let’s play the camouflage game: You have things to hide but you are not allowed to cover them up. You don’t have very much time. Where will it be best to hide them? Will anyone be able to find them? Test your ideas What were the best camouflage patterns? You could record your results in a table like this one: How well hidden was this pattern? Stripes No pattern Spots Share your ideas You could take photographs to send to Corina. You could make a poster showing creatures using different types of camouflage. Extra things to do Find out more about creatures that use camouflage and why. Find out why some female animals are better camouflaged than males. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236