Self-study
One adaptation that enables an animal species to survive despite predation by other species is effective camouflage. ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ █ ████ ████ ████ ███████████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
How have some black-and-white prey species survived despite the fact that they have few or no adaptations to counteract predation and their coloration seems unlikely to provide effective camouflage?
Objective
The right answer will describe some factor that has allowed the black-and-white species to endure for a long time, despite their apparent survival shortcomings. This might take the form of explaining how the coloration actually does benefit the species despite what we may think, adding some additional survival information about these species, or showing some weakness in the species’ predators.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ██████
a
Most species with ███████████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ █████
This doesn’t matter. We expect that predators eat more than one animal throughout their lives, so the prey species being more populous doesn’t explain their survival. This answer also doesn’t say how much more populous the prey are—it could be that there’s only one more of them!
b
No form of ██████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ██████████
This doesn’t help. The black-and-white species in question seem not to have any camouflage at all, so general information about camouflage effectiveness isn’t relevant or useful.
c
Animals of many █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███
This explains how the black-and-white coloration that humans don’t see as effective camouflage might in fact function as such against predator species. Maybe these predators see the world in black-and-white or perceive patterns that match the prey’s coloration!
d
Conspicuous black-and-white areas ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████
This isn’t helpful. We need information about how these black-and-white animals evade predator species in order to survive, not how they avoid one another.
e
Black-and-white coloration is ███ ██ █████ █ █████████ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ████
This doesn’t matter. This answer choice suggests that black-and-white coloration is a liability against predators, even if that liability is less substantial at night!