Camouflage Game 

Source:

adapted from Kat Jones SNH Child’s play

Did you know?

Most animal species have developed some sort of natural camouflage that helps them find food and avoid attack. The specific nature of this camouflage varies considerably from species to species.

An animal's environment is often the most important factor in what the camouflage looks like. Peatlands or bogs tend to appear featureless on a large scale and provide few natural structures for animals to hide behind or under, so cryptic colouration of skin, fur, feathers or scales is typical. The simplest camouflage technique is for an animal to match the "background" of its surroundings. Many animals have developed special adaptations that let them change their coloration as their surroundings change. For example, in Scotland, the mountain hare changes its coat from mottled grey/brown in summer to white in winter.

Before the activity

Discuss with the class what are the different ways prey species can hide from predators? Animals may use different strategies - running/ hiding/ flocking (increased vigilance/ decreased risk of being the caught). Where the animal cannot outpace the hunter (eg flightless chicks) or there is no cover (trees/ rocks/ burrows) good camouflage is critical. Remember, camouflage only works if the prey stays still!

Talk about your site visit. Do the children think peatlands are colourful places? What colours do they think they will find? Make a list of these ‘guesses’.

Take enough hand lenses for the children to work in pairs for the first part of the activity, and record sheets for the second.

The activity

On site, look at the colours and shapes in the peatland landscape. Take 2 views – the wider landscape. What are the dominant colours? (On a large scale, peatlands appear largely featureless, with few trees). Working in pairs, take an ant’s eye view – a close up of the bog. Using hand lens may help here. (You should discover a miniature landscape of hummocks and hollows made up of a carpet of sphagnum mosses and tiny peat loving plants, creating a jewel-like mosaic of colours). What colours can they see? Take a note of these ‘found’ colours to take back to the classroom.

Divide the class in pairs. Give one child in one of the pairs 2 pieces of red wool, 2 of brown, 2 of black, 2 of green, 2 of white, and a piece of paper or notebook to record the order of finding the colours. Send each pair out - while one turns their back and doesn’t look, the other hides their pieces of wool – they mustn’t hide them under objects, but must just lay them on the top. It is best to give them a very limited area in which to do it and give them a short period of time. After their time is up, give the other person of each pair 2 minutes to search for the wool. Get them to record the order in which they find the colours. Back as one group, count the wool and discuss which colours are easier to find. Which colour would you want to be if you were in danger of being eaten? Why are some animals bright colours? (eg mating/ display/warning colouration).

Suggested follow-up

Pool the results from the coloured wool hunt and represent as a graph or pie chart.  This should illustrate which colours work best as camouflage in that particular habitat.

Look at images of animals that live in peatland and bog habitats eg Red Grouse, curlew, snipe, teal, pinkfoot goose, common frog, adder, common lizard, dragonfly and moth species.

Make a camouflage collage. Paint a background in a mosaic of colours to represent peat, pools, moss, heather, grasses and sedges. Cut out shapes of your chosen wildlife in cardboard and stick on scraps of material in appropriate shapes, colours and patterns to represent these creatures in their peatland habitat. Does their camouflage work?

Downloads

Good site for further information on camouflage, starting with ‘Where’s Waldo’ and then providing images and games to illustrate animal camouflage. http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/adaptations/camou1.html

and See http://science.howstuffworks.com/animal-camouflage.htm