WEBVTT - How Animal Camouflage Works 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.120 Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:13.160 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:19.079 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry Hooray that makes 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.480 this stuff. He should know. That's right. How's it going. 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:29.440 It's going well great. You got your candy soda canned 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:38.800 diet soda with um. Unfortunately it contains then old keytoe nerrics. Yeah, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.640 there's a big problem. Have you looked into that well, 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.560 I mean I don't drink that stuff is a rule 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:45.280 because of all the junk in it. No, but have 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.480 you ever looked into that condition It's a metabolic conditioning 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.440 where it's like you can't have protein basically, but you 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.280 also have to live interesting. Yeah, it's it sounds terrible. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.160 I know. You can clean a toilet with candy soda 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.880 and you can make a penny shiny overnight. Yeah. You 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.360 can loosen um rusted nuts and bolts. Yeah, or you 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.880 can drink it. Right. That's the most delicious move is 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.800 go juice. It is go juice of the type you 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:17.600 know me, I like my orange soda every now and 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.640 then they'll like the wippony lou that in a root 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.680 beer is about all roos. Great. What about cream soda? Yeah, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.759 you're not a big cream soda now, it's fine. I'll 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:29.800 have I have one of those every two years. I'll 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.720 have it's about five root beers a year and about 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.560 teneam in your fridge with like a little bit of 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.720 masking tape so they're numbered. No, I don't buy them 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.119 to keep them in the house. They just you should. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.959 It's probably cheaper by Yeah, and this is not a 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:51.360 big statement on health and wellness. My family didn't buy 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:53.520 that stuff growing up because we were you know, they 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.200 were teachers and we didn't have a ton of money 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.920 and would drink water, just water, a lot of water 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.080 to real especially in restaurants. We'll just have water. Yeah, 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.160 that kind of deal because the other stuff costs money. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.240 But in retrospect, I'm glad, you know, because I never 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.359 developed a big affinity for SODA's. Yeah. No, it's pretty 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.920 great for your mom. Yeah, so thanks mom for the 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.880 for the milk and water way to go. So Chuck, 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.760 I would say this is a perfect segue to what 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:25.960 we're talking about today. Animal camouflage. Yeah, we covered a 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.600 little bit of the uh this in the Coolest Animal Ever, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.919 The Octopus podcast. Yeah. We also talked about your descence 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.320 I think, yeah, and how to butterfly wings get their color? Yeah, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.200 that was you know when people say, like, what's an 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.040 episode that that everybody overlooks that you thought it was great? 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:50.079 There's like fifty of them at least more like Um, 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.880 but I would say that the butterfly wings episode is 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.880 a really startling example of that where it's just like, 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.080 you think it's gonna be boring, but it led us 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:03.200 into all sorts of stuff optics, color, butterflies, migration, like 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.680 all sorts of really cool stuff light. Yeah. Um, that 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:08.760 one turned out to be really neat. Yeah, and you 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.320 know what you just reminded me. Um, we should mention 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.440 that we have close to seven hundred podcasts now, we're 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.840 really close and a lot of people that maybe find 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.240 us via iTunes or another pod player, thank you, might 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.160 we might only have like three hundred. Yeah, it's funny 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.760 to see that triumphant tweet, like, just listen to all 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.440 three episodes of Steven should know my life is completely like, 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.760 oh boy, I'm so sorry. You got a long road 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:32.600 to home. But you can find all those we have 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.120 an RSS if you just google stuff. You should Know RSS, 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:37.400 or go to our website Stuff you should dot Com 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.080 click under podcasts. We have all seven hundred of them there. Yeah, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.120 you can also search stuff you Should Know archive and 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.200 it should bring up the archive page on our website, 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.320 which has every single episode of Stuff you Should Know ever, 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:50.520 and I think you can download them there too, can't 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.840 you think? So who knows in this day and age 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:58.560 twenty one century, it's right, So animal camouflaged chuckers. Yes. Also, 0:03:58.600 --> 0:03:59.960 I want to give a shout out to a board 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:06.280 panda um article twenty amazing examples of animal animal camouflage. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.640 It's nuts. Some of the stuff these animals are doing 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.520 these days. It's pretty cool. And you know, I because 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.680 they want to live. Yeah, it's natural selection at work, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.039 which is kind of like it's happening right in front 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.720 of our eyes. We've covered natural selection at length in 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.000 that episode, in the Darwin episode. But as we all know, 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.480 if an animal gets munched on or stomped on, it's 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.920 not gonna be around. So it adapts into the world 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:33.400 around me and says, hey, I think I might want 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.119 to look like that twig or might want to blend 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.360 in color wise, then I won't get eaten and I'm 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.000 gonna pass that down to my kids and they won't 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.159 get eaten, and all of a sudden, we're a healthy, 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.480 thriving species. Yeah. And through natural selection, an animal that 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.240 has a trait that keeps it from being eaten allows 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.960 it to, say, blend in. It raises the likelihood that 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.479 it will live long enough to reproduce to pass it on. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.280 And on the other hand, an animal that say, rightly 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.080 colored and stands out in its environment, it's probably gonna 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.000 get picked off early on won't have a chance to reproduce, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.440 so whatever traits it has won't necessarily be passed along. Yeah, 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.120 and that's why almost every animal that you'll see on 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:20.520 the planet Earth has some sort of blending in capability. Um. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.360 Not always. You know, you'll see a big blue bird 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.239 in the middle of the woods obviously you're a cardinal, 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.560 but you'll also see a lot of deer and squirrels 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.000 and ground mammals that are sort of browny and gray. Yeah, 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.559 it's not because they're just drabbed, because there again trying 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.640 to survive exactly. They blend in with those earth tones. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.400 And if you look in the ocean, um, you will 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:42.640 see some crazy fluorescent things, but you're also going to 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.960 see a lot of blue grayish coloring um and sea 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.040 creatures because they'll blend into the light, that soft light 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.600 under the water. And one of the reasons why animal 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.640 camouflage is so widespread and adaptation is because it doesn't 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:01.120 just help you from being hunted yourself. It helps you 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.520 to hunt. You can use it to capture prey as 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.800 well as hide from predators. So it's just really versatile 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.120 and great fantastic stuff can help you kill and not 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.160 be killed exactly, just the whole key. So Um, there's 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.359 a couple of different ways where there's some factors involved 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:25.279 in how animal camouflage will develop within a given species. Um. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.679 First and foremost, it depends on how the animal behaves, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.240 and it's physiology. Yeah, like, uh, if your mammal, obviously 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.520 your fur is gonna play a large part. If you're 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:41.440 a fish or an amphibian, your scales, your skin might write. 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.160 If you're traveling big packs, you might use that to 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.880 your advantage, or if you're a solo flyer, you might 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.480 find a way to work that into your routine, your 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.840 survival routine. Yeah, So I mean the animal itself, the camouflage, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.640 it develops what type of animal it is and how 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:59.960 it behaves. Those are going to have a huge impact. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.240 So too will the environment. Probably more than anything else, 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:08.200 the environment will um predict how the animals camouflage will develop, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.960 because what you want to do is blend into the background, 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.280 and so the natural habitat, the environment that the animal 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.720 lives in will become the model for the camouflage. Yeah. Like, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.080 if you're surrounded by green, you're probably gonna be green 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.920 um or you might be dead soon. Uh. The other 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.600 is the final way is the physiology and behavior of 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.560 the predators and prey that seek those animals out for lunch. So, 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.800 for instance, if the your main predator is color blind, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.320 then you're not gonna mess with changing color. You might 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.160 alter over time, just like maybe the stripe pattern on 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:49.400 your body, or it's about pattern not color necessarily. So 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.560 the your own physiology and behavior, the behavior and I 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.000 guess physiology of your predators or your prey, and then 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.680 the actual environment that you and have it. These are 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:05.280 the big three when it comes to determining animal camouflage. Yeah, 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.960 and most of the camouflage that we see around us 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.840 all balls under the banner. Of blending in to your 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:18.720 surroundings just being casual. Um. And then there's basically two ways. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.520 Colors is huge, it's not the only thing, but it's 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.760 one of the bigger points of animal camouflage. And then 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.000 there's two ways that color is produced here on planet 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:35.400 Earth by animals, and it's either chemically or physically. And chemically, 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.400 colors are produced through pigments, that's right, biochromes their microscopic 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:44.400 natural pigments, and they are they produce these colors chemically, 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.720 and for instance, your chemical makeup might absorb some colors 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.320 of light reflect others. That's gonna make you appear to 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.920 be a different color or be a different color, right exactly. So, Like, um, 0:08:55.960 --> 0:09:00.559 I looked up human pigment, human pigmentation to see if 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.559 that was an example of camouflage. Couldn't find anything. It 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.240 wasn't like one of those ones where you do a 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.079 Google searching you're like, oh, this is obviously a dumb question. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.040 This was like there just hasn't been a lot of 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.360 academic study on it or whatever for humans. Yeah, like 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.480 if brown skin or peach skin, yeah, interesting. I think 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.880 what it is ultimately is just an adaptation to the 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.120 exposure to the sun rather than trying to blend in 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.960 with your environment. That makes sense, but I wondered I 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.600 got my answer. I guess through the fact that there 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:32.680 wasn't an answer, all right. The other way you mentioned 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.640 was actually physical structures, and these are also microscopic and 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.880 they act like prisms. And one example they gave in 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.679 the article was polar bears, who actually have black skin, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.720 but they have translucent hairs, and the translucent hair turns 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.920 all visible light into a rainbow, which is why polar 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.480 bears look like rainbow colored. Well, I don't think that's true. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.000 It's like on the Pink Flood album cover. Yeah, that's 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.480 a polar bear, right right, that's a polar bear hair 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:09.000 that prism. Not true. No, but apparently they have black 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.560 skin underneath, but their hair manages to bend and reflect 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.280 all light, almost all lights, so they appear white and 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.440 the nuts. But it's almost like, why why not just 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.240 have the darker skin evolve out just because the hair 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.640 made it so it didn't need to. Maybe I wonder 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.640 if it serves some other purpose. Yeah, maybe this good 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.319 question polar bear experts. Yeah, but just someone's gonna know, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:41.080 please let us know. Um, Butterflies also have um physical structures. 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:46.040 Scales are also a physical structure because they do crazy 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.160 things to light. And then some animals have both chemical 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.600 and physical structures that create their camouflage. Apparently a lot 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.560 of reptiles are green because they have physical structures that 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.600 bend light and reflect light except up for say yellow. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.679 But then they have pigments underneath the skin that create 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.360 blue or vice versa. Probably now that I say it 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.040 out loud, and then you put the two together and 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:14.600 you have green, which helps for a snake that lives 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:19.040 in bright green trees. Yeah, and all of these um, 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.880 all these animals have their own method I guess, and 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.119 with their physiology, like obviously mammals have their fur um, 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.440 fish um, amphibians, reptiles, they're gonna use their scales, birds 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:36.240 have their feathers, and even insects use their exoskeleton um, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.160 which can actually like the texture of the exoskeleton can 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.959 be changed over time to better blend in. Yeah, right, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:49.360 Like think about the the wings on grasshopper. They look 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.880 a lot like a leaf, right, But one of the 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.760 reasons they look like a leaf is not just because 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.040 of the color, but because of the texture it's got 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:57.720 kind of this math thing. If they were like a 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.920 high shine polish, the thing would stand out pretty pretty clearly. 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:05.440 So it's not just color. It's also texture as well 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.680 and patterns as we'll see. But color is probably the 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:14.320 most widespread part of animal camouflage. And apparently a squirrel, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.960 the squirrels fur is rough and uneven to resemble the 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.520 texture of tree bark. Makes sense. Yeah, I never really 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:22.880 noticed that I can spot a squirrel a mile away though. 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:24.599 Well that's because there's like a zillion of them in 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.520 Atlanta because I hate them. Woh, that's right. So we'll 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.000 talk more about animal colors and all the neat stuff 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:44.600 that can happen right after this message. All right, we're back, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.080 and we are talking about changing of the seasons now, 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:53.600 because animals will change themselves depending on the change of 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.960 the seasons. They can actually adapt to the seasons to 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.800 blend in. Do you see how acutely fought are Look 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.680 how cute that foxes? That's the same type of fox. 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.760 I love foxes like. So, the Arctic fox lives in 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.360 a u an environment, a habitat where some of the 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.120 year it's snowy, other parts of the year it's um Well, 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.600 woody and muddy. Yeah, and so as a result, the 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.040 Arctic fox has evolved to change its coat depending on 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.600 the season. Yeah, that's a sharp adaptation. It's pretty awesome. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.400 And it's actually triggered by hormones. The the animal senses 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.360 the changing in the season because of like the shift 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.800 in daylight, maybe shifts in temperature, and they'll release hormones 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:37.880 and there'll be a reaction and all of a sudden, 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.319 there are different biochromes being produced in that little fox 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.560 can change color right there. They're making different pigments. Pigments. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.800 The thing is um and some bird species do this too, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.720 but well, not a lot of mammals, but some mammals 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.240 will change their coat. The thing is that you can't 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.360 or the fox or the bird can't do anything to 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.319 change its actual coat. Once the oat has grown out, 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.440 it has to shed its coat or malt its feathers 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.960 and then regrow new ones that better match the new things. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.960 So that's why um. Apparently a lot of mammals malt 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.079 is to change the color of their coat. Yeah, that's 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.240 pretty awesome. It is pretty awesome. Have you ever seen 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.680 the videos of the pet foxes on the internet. Yeah, man, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.080 they're very cute, little fluffy tails wagon and like those 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.480 little chirpy noises they make when they get betted. Yes, 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.680 that one in particular adorable. Uh and then chuck. Um. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.200 Have you heard about the peppered moth. I don't think 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.640 so you have. It's the sterling example of natural selection 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.520 in practice. But it's based on um camouflage. So in 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.640 London during the Industrial Revolution that's London, England. Yes, okay, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:52.080 it became so sooty that um the white bodied peppered moth, 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.040 which is exactly what it sounds like. It's kind of 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.840 peppery looking. It looks like if it landed on the 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.360 side of a birch tree, you know, the white ones, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.240 it would just blend right in because of this mixture 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.120 of white and black. The thing is, is there so 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.400 much soot produced during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.560 in London that this these moths that had any white 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.200 to them would stand out like a sore thumb and 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:23.040 we're predated eaten. Uh. There was a variation on this 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.360 called the black bodied peppered moth didn't change because of 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.240 the soot. So the thing is is the animal itself 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:34.440 didn't change. Different varieties of the same species. One was eaten, 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.120 one thrived because of the change in the amount of soot, 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.120 but it happened very quickly. How do they know they 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.760 just weren't white moss covered with soot. They're they're pretty 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.160 sure they weren't. And then now that the soot has 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:53.480 been whipped largely in London um, the white bodied pepper 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.040 moth is now predominant again because it can blend in 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.600 a lot more easily because there's less soot because London 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:04.360 cleaned up act in some ways? What way says it not? 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.680 I don't know. They like to drink a lot, they 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.680 really they do. But don't they stop at like eleven? Now? 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.320 I don't just remember we started drinking at four and 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.440 then they drink for several hours, but then they stopped 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.400 at eleven, like the bars aren't open all night or something. Yeah. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.480 The only time I went to London, I just remember thinking, man, 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.880 they really do drink a lot. This is great. And 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.040 I remember buying beer can beer in the store and 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.280 I was like, oh, they've got its tall boys and 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.920 they're like, what's the tall boy? Right, Like we just 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.960 call that a beer that's a short Yeah, that you 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.600 should see our tall boys. You call them kegs. I 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.360 can't wait to go back. We're hoping, spoiler, We're hoping 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.040 to maybe come to London for a show. Fingers crossed. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.200 All right, So where were we? Oh, we were talking 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.040 about bio biochromes. Uh, those are the cells on this 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.920 near to the skin surface, or in the case of 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.840 the octopus or the cuttlefish, you can have deeper cells 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.640 called chromatophors, which we talked about at length in the 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.320 octopus episode, and those are amazing. Those are pigmented cells 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.760 that the octopus and the cuttlefish can basically manipulate these 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.159 cells and contract and expand these things, like the surface 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.720 area can expand up to when they want to show 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.240 that particular pigment. Yeah, and a good uh. I don't 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.159 know if we had mentioned this and the last octopus one, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.119 but a good way to see this in action is 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.719 to take like a balloon, like a red balloon, and 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.400 just blow it up a little bit and tie it off. 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.760 You know, if you squeeze that balloon, it's gonna change 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:33.840 its color, it's gonna become lighter. And then when you 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.400 unsqueeze it or let it go, it's gonna go back 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.440 to that dark red. And that's kind of the same 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.240 thing that's going on with the manipulation of the caromatophor, right, 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.920 And that's different shades of it's of the same color, 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.080 but they have different camatophores of totally different colors and 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.560 then call up what they want, right. Yeah, So if 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.520 they want like all black, they could reduce the size 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.080 of everything but black and just show the black. But 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.520 they can also mix and match to create colors that 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.240 are basically a bland and of their different colored chromatophores. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.639 So if they are blue and yellow and they're showing 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.720 those equally, they'll have a nice healthy shade of green overall. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.960 And with cuttle fish in particular, they've done some recent 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.919 study and they found that not only do they have chromatophores, 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.240 they have two other structures that help too. They have lucophors, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.960 which scatter light very efficiently. Then they also have aritophores, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.399 which produce iridescence. So that's why it's not just like 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.840 a flat color change. It's like these are it's like magic. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.960 When you see an octopus quick change color or cuttle fish, Yeah, 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.040 it looks like they it looks like it's just become 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.000 a completely different animal, not just colorwise, but texture and 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.960 all that is all just optical illusions. Yeah, the the 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.800 octopus can shape texture and color. And a second, it's 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:48.680 not like I mean, if you've seen the video, it's 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:50.520 not the kind of thing that's like, oh it's changing now. 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.800 I mean you blink your eyes and it's a underwater plant. Exactly. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.800 What's nuts, though, Chuck, is they've studied the cuttle fish 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.679 and it's just color they're changing. Maniac cuttle fish are 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.960 color blind. They have no idea. They know that it's 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.320 visually driven because they've deprived it of visual cues before 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.400 and shown that it's not quite as adept at changing 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.840 its colors, so they know that it's it's visually driven, 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.560 but they have no idea how a cuttle fish can 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.080 tell what color to change too, because it's color blind. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.720 Isn't that cool? Well? Maybe I don't know. There's no 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.679 mirrors down there. Maybe they don't even know what color is. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.360 Maybe not. Maybe it's all some other sense that we've 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:37.520 yet to discover. Yeah, the cuddle sense cuddle, Um, I 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.439 guess we can. I know we mentioned this in another 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.280 one about the chameleon that may have been or is 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.879 that it don't be dumb episode that chameleons don't change 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.280 their color to blend in. They actually change color depending 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.199 on their mood. I've not done that one. I heard that, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.000 I think for the first time a couple of years ago. 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.040 I had always thought, like a lot of people, that 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.240 the chameleon, you know, lands on something green, it's gonna 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.600 turn green. As far as any paink commercial I've ever 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.400 seen for through chameleon, that's the story, you know. Yeah, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.320 But they, like I said, they change when their mood changes. Um, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.080 and not necessarily depending on their surroundings. Right, so they're 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.960 basically showing like I'm happy, I'm fluorescent orange. Right now, 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.400 let's go uh, let's go to happy hour. Um. So, 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:21.240 so far, we've got hormonal changes to either changes in 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:26.440 temperature or changes in sunlight leading to molting or shedding 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.640 a fur in a new coat. Um, you've got some 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:35.200 sort of visually driven behavior in some pretty amazing animals 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:40.520 like the octopus or the cuttlefish. Um, you've got chameleons 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.280 changing based on their mood, which again I guess would 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:47.760 probably be hormonally triggered. And then you've also got some 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.280 that changed their color their camouflage based on diet, like 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.760 the nudy branch, or as I like to call it, 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:58.840 the nudy brand, the nuty branch. Did you look at these? No? Amazing. 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:05.000 It's one of those like super brilliant, fluorescent, very colorful things. Um. 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.000 And they are sea creatures and they alter their diet 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.840 depending on what kind of coral um they are near. 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.280 They will eat that coral and deposit that pigmentum from 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:18.080 the coral into their skin and their intestines, and it'll 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.520 just change the color to blend in with what they're eating. Basically, yeah, 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.919 because what they're eating is also what they're living on. 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.760 So when they eat a specific type of coral and 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:31.160 that changes their color, they blend in with their surroundings. 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:35.520 Pretty ingenious, smart nudy branches. Way to go. There are 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:40.800 also fish who change color without changing their diet um, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.240 and that is sort of like the malting and mammals 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.280 and birds the fish and this this is something that 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.080 happens over time. It's not like I'll eat and change colors. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.840 But if the fish changes environment as a species, it's 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.760 going to get new queues and look around and say, well, 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.719 I might want to think about turning a little more 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.280 green over time as a specie, and I want to 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:03.880 think about that. So I'm gonna release some hormones and 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.840 maybe over time, my my sons and my son's sons 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.400 might eventually really blend in well. And oh grab when 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.600 it comes to shark yah hide exactly have you heard 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.840 of the glass frog? Uh, it's neat. It's translucent, so 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.439 you can see its internal organs very clearly. Um. But 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.639 I was like, what what adaptation is that? Seriously, like, 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.480 how does that figure with with animal camouflage? And um, no, 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.480 one's sure, there's no definitive answer, but it seems like 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.719 the best theory I saw was that, Um, it's translucent 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:40.320 skin makes it invisible. Oh really, uh huh, which makes 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.320 sense because it's guts are green and I think it's 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.800 a tree frog, so it's it's invisible, I guess to 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:49.600 some predators, or maybe it just wants to be a 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.159 part of the body's exhibit really badly. It looks like 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.000 that it's the frog version of the invisible man man. 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.120 I'll have to check that out. So we'll talk more 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:11.560 about some other uses for camouflage. Right after this, we 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.680 talked about coloration and stuff, like that, but they're also designs. 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.240 Um the animals can use to blend in, and that 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:23.280 is the model pattern that they're using. Like let's say 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:27.800