by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer | June 24, 2015 07:31am ET
Curling up to look like a pile of poop might not sound appealing, but it's a useful strategy that some species of caterpillars use to hide from hungry birds, a new study finds.
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This caterpillar (Macrauzata maxima) is more likely
to survive if its body is curled to look like a blob
of bird poop. Credit: Chisa Ito
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The moment the caterpillar uncurls, birds are more likely to realize that it's not a pile of excrement but rather a tasty snack, said study researcher Toshitaka Suzuki, a postdoctoral fellow of evolutionary studies at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Kanagawa, Japan.
The bird-poop disguise is a type of camouflage called "masquerade," a defense that helps animals look like inedible objects, such as twigs, stones or bird droppings. Suzuki noticed that certain caterpillars curled up their bodies to masquerade as poop, but it wasn't clear whether this disguise increased their rate of survival, he said.
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