Concealing coloration
Animals use color to blend in with surroundings.

• Polar bears’ white coats help them blend in as they hunt.
• Crab spiders can change to yellow, pink or white to match the flowers where they hunt for insects.

Defensive displays
Flashing a bright color can confuse and scare away predators.

• Blue-ringed octopie normally blend in to hide. But if attacked they quickly change to bright, warning color to startle predators and warn they have a deadly poisonous bite.
• Human warriors often paint bright colors on their faces and bodies to scare their enemies.

Disruptive coloration
Animals uses colored spots, stripes and other patterns to break up their outlines against background.

• Spotted leopards’ yellow and black coat blends into the dappled, sunlit trees as long as the animal is still.
• The incredible colors and patterns of tropical reef fish like the trigger fish breaks up the pattern of its body and confuses predators so it can escape.

Courtship colors
Using bright, contrasting colors to attract the attention of a mate.

• Robins’ orange breasts, boobies’ bright blue or red feet, and peacocks’ colorful tails all help attract mates.

Disguise
Animals have evolved to look like twigs, stones or leaves.

• Walking sticks look like twigs.
• The wings of the Indian leaf butterfly look just like the dead leaves where it rests.

Warning colors
Animals that taste bad or are poisonous don’t want predators to find out after they’ve taken a bite. Bright, bold colors warn hunters to stay away.

• Poison dart frogs are extremely poisonous so they sport some of the brightest colors around.
• Monarch butterflies taste foul and bright orange lets the world know.

Mimicry
Animals look like other animals which are more dangerous or less tasty than themselves.

• Viceroy butterflies taste great but predators leave them alone because they look like the foul-tasting monarch butterfly.
• Red salamanders are harmless but they look like the poisonous Eastern newt so that its predators leave it alone.

Territorial displays
Many animals need to defend territory and bright colors can help tell rivals and enemies to stay away! A display of bright colors can help scare away intruders and avoid a real fight.

• Male birds such as hummingbirds and bluebirds are brightly colored to help defend their territory.

Masking
Animals gather materials from their habitat to make a hiding place or to conceal their bodies as they move about.

• Human hunters wear camouflage outfits and sometimes twigs, grass or leaves to mask themselves from prey.
• Hermit crabs live in shells from other animals and sponge crabs grow live sponges on their shells to blend in and confuse predators.