Background complexity can mitigate poor camouflage.
Background complexity can mitigate poor camouflage.
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背景复杂性可以减轻伪装效果差的情况。
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2021.2029
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发表时间：
2021
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Rowe ZW
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Rowe ZW
通过伪装来避免被发现往往是生存的关键。然而，动物的外表并不是影响引人注目性的唯一因素：背景复杂性也会改变可检测性。这已经在实验室中的人工图案背景和野外的自然背景中实验性地证明，但仅针对已经与背景很好地匹配的目标。高度视觉复杂性的栖息地是否为即使是相对较差的动物提供了隐蔽性？使用人工猎物不同程度的背景匹配树皮，我们能够确定他们的生存，鸟类捕食下，相对于自然复杂的背景。后者是量化使用低层次的视觉指标的功能拥塞（或“视觉混乱”）适应鸟类的视觉。更高的背景方向杂波（不同方向的边缘）降低了所有的可检测性，但最差的背景匹配老化治疗;更高的背景亮度杂波（不同的消色差亮度）降低了所有治疗的平均死亡率。我们的研究结果表明，更复杂的背景可以减轻较差的伪装，与伪装进化和栖息地偏好的影响。
Avoiding detection through camouflage is often key to survival. However, an animal's appearance is not the only factor affecting conspicuousness: background complexity also alters detectability. This has been experimentally demonstrated for both artificially patterned backgrounds in the laboratory and natural backgrounds in the wild, but only for targets that already match the background well. Do habitats of high visual complexity provide concealment to even relatively poorly camouflaged animals? Using artificial prey which differed in their degrees of background matching to tree bark, we were able to determine their survival, under bird predation, with respect to the natural complexity of the background. The latter was quantified using low-level vision metrics of feature congestion (or ‘visual clutter’) adapted for bird vision. Higher background orientation clutter (edges with varying orientation) reduced the detectability of all but the poorest background-matching camouflaged treatments; higher background luminance clutter (varying achromatic lightness) reduced average mortality for all treatments. Our results suggest that poorer camouflage can be mitigated by more complex backgrounds, with implications for both camouflage evolution and habitat preferences.