Have you noticed that sometimes when you look at nature, you don’t realize there are animals looking back at us? Do animals only change their colors to hide themselves? No, there are many reasons why they change colors. Watch to find out why and how animals change their colors! #STEMvee
[Video Description: Barbara, a white woman wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, is sitting in the foreground and the background has a window (center), few plants (left and right), and a chair (right).
0:41 – A photo (on the left) of a rock ptarmigan standing on rocks. The bird sports brown plumage with a white underside.
01:55 – A photo (on the right) of a rock ptarmigan standing in the snow. The bird sports snowy white plumage with red and black markings near its eye.
02:10 – A photo (on the left) of a chameleon sitting on a person’s finger. The chameleon has yellow, green, and orange colors on its body along with vertical blue stripes.
03:01 – A photo (on the left) of a chameleon sitting on a tree branch. The chameleon is mostly green with a white stripe transversing its body.
03:15 – A photo (on the right) of a chameleon sitting on a tree branch. The chameleon is yellow colored with vertical red stripes and a white stripe transversing its body.
03:43 – Three photos (on the left) of cephalopods. The top photo shows an orange octopus spreading its arms in the water column. The middle photo shows a mottled brown/white squid swimming in the water column. The bottom photo shows a tan/brown striped cuttlefish swimming in the water column.
04:20 – A photo (on the left) of a brilliantly rainbow-colored cuttlefish in the front of a black background.
04:33 – A photo (on the left) of a golden tortoise beetle with a metallic golden hue underneath a clear exoskeleton.
05:08 – A photo (on the left) of a golden tortoise beetle with a metallic golden hue underneath a clear exoskeleton.
05:27 – A photo (on the right) of a golden tortoise beetle with red hue underneath a clear exoskeleton.]
Transcript: Have you noticed that sometimes when you look at nature, you don’t realize there are animals looking back at us? They are so well concealed because of the colors they use to camouflage themselves. Do animals only change their colors to hide themselves? No, there are many reasons why they change colors. Some animals change their colors to protect themselves from predators, to attract potential mates, or to communicate emotions. In nature, the ability to change color can be key to survival. Vision is a very important sense in much of the animal kingdom, and many animals have come up with unique ways to use this sense to enhance their own survival. Some environments change dramatically between seasons as habitats transform from lush green and brown in summer to snowy white in winter. It’s useful for animals to change colors to blend in with the background. For example, the rock ptarmigan sports brown plumage in the summer. But as autumn progresses, the ptarmigan molts. By winter, new, pure white feathers replace its earth-toned ones. Snow white color allows the bird to avoid detection by predators. Some animals can transform their colors in a matter of seconds. Chameleons, for example, can induce color change in less than half a minute with the help of special cells in their body. The outermost layer of the chameleon’s skin is actually transparent. Beneath that outer layer lies several more layers and these layers contain these special color-changing cells called chromatophores. Iridophores are the main type of chromatophores that are responsible for the color changes in chameleons. These cells contain nanocrystals that influence how light reflects off the skin. When the chameleon is relaxed, the iridophores are tightly packed together and the crystals will reflect blues and greens. If the chameleon becomes agitated or threatened, it stretches these cells out. This means that the crystals reflect yellows and reds, which are warning colors in the natural world. Other animals have evolved color-changing mastery that can take place in the blink of an eye. Cephalopods like octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish are the champions of rapid color change. Cephalopod chromatophores contain a pigment-filled sac, surrounded by radial muscle fibers. These muscles contract to change the size and shape of the pigment-filled sac (e.g. thin, flat disc vs small sphere), resulting in the near-instantaneous and dramatic color change. There is another animal species, golden tortoise beetles, that can rapidly change colors and they do so in a very unique way. The beetles have a transparent shells that houses thin, stacked layers of plates etched with extremely small grooves. The beetle can fill these grooves with red fluid that makes the plates appear perfectly smooth so that they become reflective, taking on a metallic golden color. But if agitated or mating, the beetle quickly drains the fluid from the grooves, breaking the reflection and showing the red pigmentation below. The ability to change colors is one of the most useful adaptations in nature. The very adaptation allows nature to produce brilliantly colored species that we enjoy.
